The islands worst eruption in modern times was in 1783, when the Laki volcano blew its top. The lava shot to heights of 1.4 kilometres and more than 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere.A quarter of the islands population died in the resulting famine and it transformed the world, creating Britains notorious “sand summer”, casting a toxic cloud over Prague, playing havoc with harvests in France — sometimes seen as a contributory factor in the French Revolution — and changing the climate so dramatically that New Jersey recorded its largest snowfall and Egypt one of its most enduring droughts.
via Iceland prepares for second, more devastating volcanic eruption – Times Online.
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The Icelandic volcano that erupted for the second time in four weeks may ignite a geological chain reaction with another volcano nearby, potentially extending a disruption to air traffic as ash plumes block flight paths, a geological researcher said.
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland is adjacent to the Katla volcano, increasing the risk of a second eruption, said Ármann Höskuldsson, a volcanologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland. The Eyjafjallajokull last erupted in 1821 and remained active for two years, according to the researche