'What's going on inside volcanoes?', London, UK

Event date:
2012-11-19 An event entitled 'What's going on inside volcanoes?' will take place on 19 November 2012 in London, UK.

Remember the last volcanic eruption in Iceland? The Eyjafjallajökull erruption left millions of citizens stranded in European airports, and cost airlines an estimated EUR 900 million in six days. Alarmingly, there are signs of high activity beneath the much larger, neighbouring Katla caldera in Iceland - a possible sign of an impending eruption. This should prompt extensive high-level contingency planning across Europe, as Katla has the potential to be much more damaging than Eyjafjallajökull.

Some researchers believe that volcanic eruptions are due to climate change. In Iceland, there is a question mark over whether and when all this extra magma will erupt. Studies indicate that the timelag between generation and eruption could be as much as a few hundred years. In the meantime, the shrinking of the ice cap also causes stress changes in the crust that can encourage, or discourage, capture of the magma on its way up, depending on the path it takes.

The conference will be a forum for the scientific community specialising in this field to exchange views on the dynamics of volcanic processes.

Quality validation date:
2012-11-13