anyone . ( When the volcano erupted in 1996 it caused a devastating �lood which , for a period of a few hours , formed a torrent that exceeded the �low of the mighty Amazon !)
I made another trip to Iceland at the end of June 2011 , when a part of the Katla volcano , buried beneath the glacier of Mýrdalsjökull , suddenly saw an increase in geothermal activity . It melted some of the ice and caused a sudden �lood that severed the main road in the south of Iceland and disrupted traf�ic for weeks . Fortunately , I was already further along that road , so my plans weren ’ t affected . I made a couple of trips onto the enormous glacier of Vatnajökull , where the ice was still largely coated in ash from the Grímsvötn eruption , which made my photographs look quite peculiar .
Meanwhile , in the Canary Islands , where I ’ d just had a guidebook published in 2011 covering El Hierro , a sub-sea volcano erupted just to the south of the island . Geologists say that the Canary Islands are essentially the same island repeated over and over . The way it works is that a volcano erupts from a rift between oceanic plates , forming an island that gets ‘ welded ’ to the edge of the African plate , which then slowly drifts east . When another volcano erupts from the rift , another island is formed that also gets ‘ welded ’ onto the African plate and drifts east . The same thing happens again and again , so by the time you reach El Hierro , it ’ s almost as if geologists are waiting for the
With my reprint looming , I realised that 10 % of my guidebook was off-limits …
same thing to happen again . Sadly , the 2011 eruption barely broke the surface of the ocean before it ceased , so I ’ ll have to wait a while longer before another Canary Island is generated and I can write a guidebook for it .
I thought I was getting good at dodging volcanoes , but in 2014 the Icelandic Bárðarbunga eruption started … and it just wouldn ’ t stop . You probably never heard about the eruption , despite it generating 85 square kilometres of lava at Holohraun , because it ’ s in a very remote and uninhabited area . However , my Iceland guidebook was coming up for a reprint , so I watched the news intently . I also kept checking the Icelandic weather forecast , www . vedur . is , because that ’ s where they report on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions , as if they were just passing showers ! The volcano opened up successive rifts very close to the glacier of Vatnajökull , and there was a danger that if rifts opened up beneath the ice , then a huge �lood might cause untold destruction . There was an extensive exclusion zone , imposed mainly because of poisonous gases that were being vented . With my reprint looming , I realised that 10 % of my guidebook was off-limits , and if there was a massive �lood , some of my walks might be completely destroyed . However , just as the book was heading to the printer in 2015 , the eruption suddenly stopped and I had just enough time to remove all the warnings from my pages . outdoor focus / spring 2022 7