HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Investigates Theory That May Link Climate Change to Future Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland

HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Investigates Theory That May Link Climate Change to Future Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland

Could Global Warming Lead to an Increase in Volcanic Activity? Tuesday, May 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET

DALLAS, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow night's "Dan Rather Reports" travels to Iceland to report on the devastating effects of this year's eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. The same volcanic ash that seriously disrupted European air travel for weeks has also created a dark and demanding way of life for the people who live downwind of the volcano.

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And while the ash has caused difficulties for the few people living near the volcano, for the region's many farm animals it could prove deadly.

"I think this autumn we have to slaughter all sheep," Guomundur Guomundsson tells Dan Rather Reports. Guomundsson raises sheep and cattle on his farm several miles downwind from the crater. "I think that is the situation now because the sheep will be outside maybe this summer and they are eating maybe grass with flour [ash]. And I think we have to kill them and if we cannot make hay then we have to kill it all, sheep, cows and cattle, everything."

And while the residents of this island deal with the fallout from this current eruption, some scientists say that - because of climate change - we could be facing more frequent and more powerful volcanic eruptions in the future.

These scientists say that the millions of tons of ice from glaciers can sometimes keep volcanoes in check - the greater the mass of ice on the earth's surface, the less potential for magma to be formed deep inside the earth. But as the glaciers melt with the earth's rising temperature, a huge amount of pressure is released, and the earth's surface slowly rises as a consequence.

This can lead to increased production of magma far below the surface and, the theory goes, more frequent and violent eruptions from Iceland's many volcanoes.

"Dan Rather Reports" airs Tuesday, May 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET and will re-air at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.

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