Scientists have warned that a huge volcano in Iceland is about to erupt, dwarfing the explosion that disrupted air travel across the world eight years ago.
Katla, described as “highly hazardous”, has been releasing a massive amount of carbon dioxide – a clear indication that its magma chambers are filling up fast.
Researchers believe its eruption could overshadow that of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010 – which caused a giant ash cloud that effectively grounded all European air travel.
Thousands of passengers were stranded as the ash dispersed above Europe, triggering further disruption around the world.
An Icelandic farm at the base of the Myrdalsjokull glacier, which is part of the ice cap sealing the Katla volcano (AFP/Getty Images)
Katla, which is Icelandic for ‘kettle’, could produce an ash plume three times bigger than the much smaller Eyjafjallajokull, according to scientists.
Sarah Barsotti, from the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told The Sunday Times: "There is no way of telling when it will erupt, just that it will."
She said that the level of disruption will depend on the “intensity of the eruption and the direction of the winds at the time".
A report by researchers at Leeds University, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that Katla is overdue an eruption. It last erupted in 1918, having previously done so around every 50 years.
The research also found that Katla is releasing between 12 and 24 kilotons of carbon dioxide every day, an amount bettered by only two volcanos in the world.
In the journal, the team wrote: “Through high-precision airborne measurements and atmospheric dispersion modelling, we show that Katla, a highly hazardous subglacial volcano which last erupted 100 years ago, is one of the largest volcanic sources of CO2 on Earth, releasing up to five per cent of total global volcanic emissions.”
Thousands of plane passengers were stranded due to the ash cloud from Eyjafjallajokull volcano (AFP/Getty Images)
Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a research fellow in the Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics at Leeds University, told Icelandic broadcaster RUV that the volume of CO2 indicated “something is going on”.
She said: “There must also be a magma build-up to release this quantity of gas.
“This is a clear sign we need to keep a close eye on Katla. She isn’t just doing nothing, and these findings confirm that there is something going on.”
Scientists believe an eruption by Katla would be three times worse than Eyjafjallajokull (AFP/Getty Images)
However, Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor in geophysics at the University of Iceland, said that more studies were required to determine the chances of an eruption.
On his department’s Facebook page, he argued that it was too early to say whether the CO2 emissions were a direct indicator of an imminent explosion.