Question of the [11th?] Hour Re Katla Volcano
Today was the 28th of April, 2010. At the time of the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano over 10 days ago, mention was made that the eruption of neighboring Katla volcano (and others) could be triggered as a result. Since that time, very little has been picked up by the reigning news sources as to activity near Katla—not to mention Iceland’s other volcanoes. And yet, a small dribble did manage to drip out this day, that there was some seismic activity around Katla. But on the whole, all week the only reported news has been that there has not been any activity of any kind.
Well, I am quite sure that that is blather. Having lived in the Free World for some time (though in my youth I did spend years overseas, even in countries without a free press), I am quite spoiled at having continuous access to swift, complete and accurate news reports. This is particularly true of events which might affect the fate of air travelers and pilots. Recently by my living in Alaska, I was able to follow the reporting of Mt. Redoubt’s eruptions and presaging events, with tremendous precision. In fact, anyone can go the AVO website today and see what I mean: complete predictions, reporting of every tiny tremor, graphs of seismic activity to within an hour, graphs of possible ash trajectories, and general complete openness and thorough scientific scrutiny available to anyone with a need to know, or with a mere interest.
Believe it or not (we Americans would find it unreal), there are still countries today where the “government” rules the media! And the government is not just the government, but one that is interested in promoting itself and making money. This underreporting of activity in Iceland’s volcano Katla and others is shocking, and reeks of this type of underhanded control of the media. Either that, or an outstanding condition of neglect has taken place in the case of Iceland’s volcanoes. We are learning now that the island nation is the source of 1/3 of the world’s lava flow output, and her volcanoes can have a profound affect on aircraft, farming and life in areas very far from her. So why are each and every one of her volcanoes not being monitored and reported to the standard of AVO’s monitoring of Alaska’s volcanoes?
