• Question: What volcano is closest to us in England, and if it erupted is it likely to affect us?

    Asked by lisaloo to Matt on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      The closest volcano to England that is likely to erupt is one of the ones in Iceland. The reason I’m in England now is to study what happened underneath Eyjafjallajökull (say that ten times quickly!) in 2010. Do you remember when there was a big fuss about aeroplanes not being allowed to fly? That’s because the volcanic ash went into the atmosphere and that’s bad news for aeroplane engines – they get jammed.
      It will erupt again, but it’s very hard to know when, and how it will affect us. If a little bit of lava dribbles out it probably wont even make the BBC news, but if a big big eruption happens ash could reach England! This would mean aeroplanes couldn’t fly, powerlines could malfunction and generally people would be having a bad time. Part of my job is to help predict what the volcano does, so that people can plan how to respond. The important thing would be to stay calm 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: lisaloo

    lisaloo commented on :

    As long as england wouldn’t explode or anything!

  • Photo: Matt

    Matt commented on :

    Good old England is pretty steady, as it’s a long way from a plate boundary. A plate boundary is where two pieces of the giant jigsaw we call the crust fit together. As the plates move about the boundaries jiggle and wiggle, making earthquakes and volcanoes. Iceland is where two plates are drifting away from each other (In England we are slowing getting further away from America), which means hotter rocks lift up to take their space. These hot rocks make the volcanoes.