Embedded Files
Post date: Sep 5, 2014 1:48:23 PM
Click here for the webcam at Iceland's largest volcano
Active research into the gas continues unabated. Satellite gas measurements are reading sulfur dioxide from the plume at over six kilometers height. Geographer Baldur Bergsson has the task of quantifying the emission rates, but this has not yet been done. For the first time it's being reported that on the first days scientists arrived to investigate the eruption, many were having bad poisoning symptoms. The situation is no longer as serious for two reasons: one, the further that scientists are working from the plumes (due to the ever-advancing lava flows), the less gas they're exposed to; and two, they're taking much greater precautions now. There are always gas meters active and everyone has gas masks (though as others have noted, they don't always wear them). It's also become standard to leave cars running so that they can rapidly evacuate an area if winds shift.
The police have observed people trying to sneak into the area and reiterated their warnings about the dangers and that it's a closed area. I'm not even sure that the word "sneak" is applicable when one was outright trying to land an aircraft near the eruption to let out passengers.
The gas is a local threat in the beginning, but that which leaves the surface can enter high-level wind currents and be lofted around the world. There's a gap in the satellite pass today, but you can roughly figure out what is in the missing area by what's on either sides of it:
Report abuse