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on a brilliantly clearly Icelanding day it's easy to see
the eruptions from the volcano that has caused so much chaos
but not far away a glacier on top of one of Iceland's most powerful volcanoes over the
centuries a volcano that could cause far more chaos it's called Katla
our guide told us we could actually drive on top of two thousand feet of ice to reach the
peak of Katla, So now were on the glacier and by the console line we can see
that were just getting up to 1,000 metres 3,300 feet
we've had arrived
we felt like we were on another planet
we are now on the very top of Katla
if this volcano were to erupt
this is where would it emanate from this is the beginning of the crater this valley
the crater six miles wide
Katla is the volcano that people of Iceland fear the most
there've been very strong eruptions over the centuries the last time it erupted was in
1918
long time ago, the end of world war one
on the average over the centuries it erupts twice a century so that's why people think of
due
and it's so powerful that in the worst case scenario according to the experts the amount of water
that could flood Iceland if it erupted
would be six times the amount of water in the amazon river
per second
that gives you an idea why people are so scared of it
and why it's so carefully observed you can see the
you can see the volcano has erupted now right across from us
here it is it's sunny out
but you can see the big grey cloud that's the ash and the ash is heading in our direction
because the wind is blowing this way
so we can't stay here that long
on the ground here snow
and you can see to the black up here this is the ash
from this current volcano that is erupting
the president of Iceland this week frightened a lot of people living here by saying that
this volcano there is a small rehearsal
for what might happen here in Katla the reason he said that is because over the centuries
these these two volcanoes had erupted at the same time frequently
scientists are not sure if there's a reason when one erupts the other one does
or of it's just coincidence
but either way people get very nervous about it
this is Katla
and this indeed is
the volcano
that people here in Iceland
are scared about
before we left Katla
we were completely quiet so we could hear this
that boom
is the sound of the eruption of the active volcano
a chilling sound on top of this deselet glacier
Gary Tuchman CNN on top of the Katla volcano Iceland