Despite the screaming headlines of the British tabloids and even the Sunday Times, there is no sign that Icelandic volcano Katla will burst anytime soon, say the scientists.

The headlines have warned that "the Icelandic giant is about to burst" and "Scientists warn that the huge Icelandic volcano is about to burst, and that the 2010 ash cloud could even be reduced to nothing."

The stories were based on a recent scientific study that Katla Volcano is a major global source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, according to the lead author of the 'study. the volcano was approaching the eruption, in particular an eruption likely to greatly disrupt European air transport.

"I have said explicitly that we are not able to tell if the Katla volcano is ready to burst and that air traffic disruptions in the event of an eruption will probably not be as severe as that. 2010, "said Evgenia Ilyinskaya. a volcanologist at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

The Katla volcano is located in southwestern Iceland, not far from the infamous Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which dumped tons of ash in 2010. The ashes of this eruption have canceled tens of thousands of transatlantic flights.

It was "incredibly disappointing to see that @ thesundaytimes have followed the path of trash tabloids, "tweeted Ilyinskaya. "This article misleads its readers and undermines me as a scientist and specialist in my field. Shameful work. "

Volcanic ash can cause catastrophic damage to aircraft, especially engines. In several cases since 1982, the tragedy was narrowly avoided after the pilots were able to restart the engines after descending to 20,000 feet after crossing ashes.

Katla bursts about twice a century; the last confirmed eruption dates from 1918, according to NASA.

British tabloids such as the Sun and Daily Express are known for their sensational science stories and seem particularly fascinated by predictions of volcanic eruptions, giant earthquakes and meteorite strikes.

Ilynisha's study, published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters, states that Katla Volcano "is one of the world's largest volcanic sources of CO2 on Earth, generating up to 5% of emissions volcanic world. in a context of growing awareness that natural sources of carbon dioxide need to be quantified more accurately in climate assessments. "

Ilyinskaya said: "The real shame is that the true version of the story was already very important and interesting in itself. We discovered something totally unexpected and breathtaking about Katla volcano AND the discovery could help predict its eruptions in the future. "

Meanwhile, the real predictions about the timing of future eruptions remain elusive: Sarah Barsotti, of the Icelandic weather service, told The Sunday Times that "there was no way of knowing when it was going to burst, but that would be the case".

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