by Lynette Alice

Created on: April 21, 2010   Last Updated: May 04, 2010

While the after effects of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull are slowly beginning to dissipate, scientists warn that there may be more to come in the near future. The concern is not centered around Eyjafjallajokull erupting again now or in the near future, the new concern surrounds Katla volcano. While some consider this concern unwarranted or alarmist, history often has a way of repeating itself, and Eyjafjallajokull and Katla have plenty history.

Geologists and geophysicists point out that the Earth like anything else operates on a system of cause and effect which is logical and proved time and again. One event can trigger or contribute to triggering another event in concert with other factors that may or may not seem related but still somehow tie in together. In the case of these Icelandic volcanoes, Eyjafjallajokull has served as the opening act or at the least a contributing trigger for Katla more than once.

The volcano Katla, if triggered, could pose a far more serious threat than anyone wants to consider right now. For starters, a Katla eruption it is believed would be as much as ten times stronger than what was just experienced with Eyjafjallajokull. That means stronger tremors and more lava of course, but also a much larger ash plume. Scientists do admit that the plume may not pose the same serious problems to Europe as Eyjafjallajokull did recently because the odds of the prevailing winds matching the same out of the norm flow pattern again are unlikely - but that does not mean this much larger plume would in any way be negligible.

The pair of volcanoes are only separated by approximately 12 miles above ground, but geologists believe that beneath the surface they are connected by a series of shared magma channels which is why they so often erupt in relative unison. Like Eyjafjallajokull, Katla is buried beneath a glacier called Myrdalsjokull which is among the largest in Iceland. Myrdalsjokull is estimated to be about 550 yards thick - or about 5.5 U.S. football fields for comparison. This is twice as thick as the glacier over Eyjafjallajokull was prior to the eruption.

Katla was inactive on Tuesday 4/20/10 according seismic readings, but that has been little comfort to scientists like geophysicist Pall Einarsson who have been observing Katla. He points out that the last three times  Eyjafjallajokull  erupted, Katla followed suit. To make matters a bit more edgy, Katla erupts about every 80 years on average, the last time being in 1918 following

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