14 April 2010
Photos from Eyjafjallajökull
Posted by Callan Bentley
My friend Barry R., now residing in PostDocVille, Denmark, took a trip to Iceland last week to check out the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Unfortunately, by the time he got to the volcano, it was no longer spouting lava, but the scene is dramatic regardless.
You can sample some of his photos below, or see the whole album on Facebook.
Waterfall:
Glacial terminus and moraine:
Ash on ice (steam rising beyond the hills):
Where the volcano has melted the local ice:
Thanks to Barry for letting me share his volcano photos here. He’s the second University of Maryland alum to do so! It seems to be a trend…
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
Shortly after we left Iceland yesterday afternoon, a very large new fissure opened under the 200m thick ice sheet just to the west of where the original eruption was. This has caused major flooding due to the melting glacial ice, and they’ve cut a large hole in the only road between Vik and Reykjavik to allow the flood waters to pass without destroying the bridges. If we had booked our return tickets to Copenhagen for today instead of yesterday, we would be stuck there!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041400482.html?hpid=sec-world