 Pop. Of the country-approx  Around 2/3 live in the area of Reykjavik (the capital), in the city itself  Economy heavily dependent on the fishing industry: it brings about 40% of export earnings, contributes to the GDP by 12%, and employs around 7% of the workforce  Economy sensitive to the changes in the fish stock on world-market prices

 GDP per capita: $ (very high, 27th place in the world)  Other main industries: aluminium smelting, geothermal and hydropower, tourism  Labour occupation: 73% -services, 22.2%- industry, 4.8% - agriculture  Generally wealthy country with strong economy, despite of a crisis in 2008

 Education at school  Seismic monitors around the country  Experience with regard to volcanoes due to previous eruptions  Good ways of communication; radio, telephones, communicates  Generally well informed, aware and communicative society

 Aware and educated society  The authorities and emergency services well experieced and prepared  Good infrastructure and means of communication allow safe evacuation  Good economical situation, so the country can afford the emergency actions  Most of the population lives away from the volcano  Generally little vulnerability

 No surprise, people got used to live with the volcano,  It didn’t cause threat or panic, also due to the fact that there was not much risk for a human life in this case  Has been perceived almost as normality, part of a cycle of a volcano  However the precautions and procedures are taken seriously by a society

 High probability of occurrence because of the geographical location of Iceland.  situated on a raised part of the oceanic crust, and not a continental land mass at all  Located on the mid-Atlantic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary  geologically very active, hosting many active volcanoes and geysers

 Has experienced several volcanic eruptions.  Iceland is home to 130 volcanoes, eighteen of which have erupted. The total lava flow from these eruptions have resulted in one third of the world's total laval outflow.  worst ever volcanic eruption was in 1783 in the Lakagigar Crater, which caused the largest, single lava flow

 Eyjafjallajokull volcano in March 2010  most active of these volcanoes is Grimsvotn, which last erupted in May 2011.

 Evacuation of people from the volcanic active areas to safer grounds  Scientists working on an ash cloud detection system believe that airlines will soon be able to do just that.  develop infrared technology to help pilots see and steer around ash clouds  Intensive awareness via media, internet and other technological means.

 AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector) which uses an infra-red camera to see how dense particular areas of ash are.

 The ash cloud spread across Europe disrupting air travel in western europe.  more than 10 million passengers were affected when more than 100,000 flights were cancelled.  The Scandinavian countries were the most affected as they are closer to iceland

 First a couple of tremors, before the first eruption  Second eruption followed a couple of days later, and continued erupting  First explosion: small amount of ice, no danger of flooding, nearby area evacuated

 Situated above a hotspot, experiences frequent volcanic activity due to location on a diverging plate boundary  Airlines, whole airports were closed, huge ash cloud covering most of western Europe skyline; air traffic completely stopped due to dangerous ash and ice particles damaging the engine and the aircraft  Travellers stranded in airports unable to return

 A map: atlas.de/map_of_iceland_1-476http:// atlas.de/map_of_iceland_1-476  CIA the World Factbooks: e-world-factbook/geos/ic.html e-world-factbook/geos/ic.html  Wikipedia: