Bárðarbunga

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28979100
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volc ... es/nr/2947

At worst, it could be like the eruption of Laki in 1783, which affected most of the world and caused millions of deaths. Another possibility is that the caldera will collapse.

Nothing we can do to prevent it; so all we can do is wait and watch whether it settles down, goes bang or goes BANG!! !
I just hope Yellowstone never goes up; it could wipe out most of the life on the planet!

Would be ironic if the world were to be destroyed by... Iceland.
I'm not too worried. Last time when a volcano erupted in Iceland it just disrupted air traffic for a while. There's nothing I can do about it anyway.

It could have horrible consequences, but I'd sure like to the pics.

Another eruption at 05:15 today:

As most of Iceland's population lives along the coast, and the volcano is located in the middle of the country, I think most Icelanders don't have to worry about the blast of the lava - the ash, now that's a different story.

As it's on a constructive plate boundary, the only way there will be a large eruption is if the caldera collapses. Even then, it won't be that large. The worst that can happen is that it will continue to erupt like it's doing now for several months. That would have global consequences.

As well as ash, gases are being released. Sulphur dioxide reacts with water to form acid rain. If enough is released, it will cause a drop in global temperatures (volcanic winter). It can also react with moisture in the lungs. Hydrogen fluoride causes fluoride poisoning.

When Laki erupted in 1783, 50% of the livestock in Iceland died and crops were killed. about a quarter of the population died in the resulting famine. Crops failed in Europe due to the temperature drop, and many people died from sulphur dioxide poisoning. The summer was unusually hot and there were severe thunderstorms in England. It is estimated that 6 million people died in total.

I'll post some links to Laki information tomorrow, because I need sleep.

^ I saw an interesting documentary about that some time ago. Didn't a famous painter paint the sky in England at the time and it was odd / yellow or something, can't remember now. People thought it was the end of the world.

I did not know that Pele's temper tantrums manifested as far away as Iceland.

I still have vivid memories of the Mt. St. Helens blast back when I was a kid. Even on the east side of the Cascades here in Washington, the sky was blotted out, and ash fell like snow. And the ash was as much a b*tch to drive on as snow, too. As I recall, we got two weeks off from school, and I had heard news reports of the ash cloud reaching as far away as Iran.

Here's some stuff on Laki: Weather reports from northern English newspapers (It began to erupt on June 8 and the effects were first noticed on June 23. They continued into 1784.)
It was a low energy basaltic eruption, but lasted 8 months and had a VEI of 6, like Krakatoa.

Photos
http://photos.gudmann.is/#!/index/G0000 ... z3iKC4294s