A VOLCANIC eruption in Iceland emitted on average three times as much of a toxic gas as all European industry combined, according to new research.
Scientists from Edinburgh and Leeds universities, along with experts from the Met Office, studied the discharge of lava from the Bárðarbunga volcano which erupted last year, releasing up to 120,000 tonnes per day of sulphur dioxide.
The eruption was the biggest in the country for more than 200 years and lasted for six months.
Sulphur dioxide is also produced by burning fossil fuels and industrial processes such as smelting and although man-made sulphur dioxide production has been falling since 1990, it has been linked to respiratory problems.
Dr John Stevenson, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who took part in the study, said the results of the work, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, would help scientists predict where pollution from future volcano eruptions would spread.
Dr Anja Schmidt, from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: “The eruption discharged lava at a rate of more than 200 cubic metres per second, which is equivalent to filling five Olympic-sized swimming pools in a minute.
"Six months later, when the eruption ended, it had produced enough lava to cover an area the size of Manhattan.
"In the study, we were concerned with the quantity of sulphur dioxide emissions, with numbers that are equally astonishing: In the beginning, the eruption emitted about eight times more sulphur dioxide per day than is emitted from all man-made sources in Europe per day.”
The study was supported by The Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, amongst others.
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