Colossal Icelandic volcano threatens to wreak havoc in Europe

DAILY MAIL ISLAND,24 SEPTEMBER 2018

A volcanic explosion so colossal it unleashes gouts of toxic ash into the atmosphere capable of poisoning more than 200,000 people to death.

Europe’s temperatures plummeting for years, crop failures, mass hypothermia, transport chaos as Europe’s commercial flights are grounded for weeks, if not months. Swathes of land flooded by melted ice, farmland poisoned and villages wiped out. A hyperbolic doomsday scenario? No, say scientists. It’s all too real a prospect.

Because deep beneath a glacier in Iceland, a cataclysmic giant is stirring. Known in local lore as the ‘evil sorceress’, she is gearing up to unleash her deadly wrath on the whole of northern Europe, according to experts.

They fear that if the Katla volcano erupts, its devastating effects would dwarf those of its near neighbour Eyjafjallajokull, which exploded in 2010, releasing an ash cloud that led to the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights. It was the largest commercial air-traffic shutdown since World War II as millions were stranded across Northern Europe between midapril and mid-may.

These cataclysmic predictions are based on a similar eruption from the Laki volcanic system, 30 miles north-west of Katla, in 1783.

That explosion killed a fifth of Iceland’s population and created an ash cloud that obscured the sun’s rays across the Northern Hemisphere for months, sending temperatures plummeting by 3c.