I have mentioned before how extreme the business environment has been in Iceland over the past few years, but business isn’t the only thing that is extreme in Iceland. Yesterday a volcanic eruption started in Grímsvötn in the southern part of Iceland, only a year after the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull made the world news for stopping air traffic all over Europe with it’s tremendous cloud of ash.
One of Iceland’s most respected reporter, Ómar Ragnarsson, is quoted to have said about the Grímsvötn eruption “this is the largest volcano eruption that I have seen”. But volcanic eruptions are a common occurrence in Grímsvötn as it usually erupts every 10 years or so and is therefore Iceland’s most frequently active volcano. Over the years most of the eruptions in Grímsvötn have not been very dangerous so hopefully this one will be the same.
I found it very strange last year that while I lived only an hours drive from the Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption I was not effected by it very much and in fact did not even see any signs that there was a volcano eruption other then the once I saw on TV. Yet at the same time people living tens of thousands of kilometers away, all over Europe, were effected by it since it in many cases ruined there travel or vacation plans. This time the same is true I can’t see any signs of an eruption in Iceland other then the once I am reading on the Internet.
A few of the people I follow on twitter have pointed out that at least this time the name should be a little bit more easier for the foreign press. Last time the press had some problems with pronouncing “Eyjafjallajökull” correctly, can’t imagine why.
If your interested in following some interesting discussions on the eruptions on twitter the hashtags to follow are: #grimsvotn, #icerupt, #eruption, #iceland. A few interesting people that are covering the eruption on Twitter are @aldakalda, @hjortur and @thisisiceland. If your not following @ThisIsIceland already on twitter then you should, they often have the best tweets as this is actually Iceland the Island that is twitting but not a mere human like the rest of us.
Iceland is full of energy, so much that it explodes through the Earth’s crust.