The Daily Mail strikes again

 

As many readers of this blog will determine without much trouble, even though this blog is not troubled by many readers -- I am a huge fan of the Daily Mail tabloid newspaper and even more, their Web site.  They have a lot of interesting articles, plus as any good tabloid should have, they feature 

• murders and crime; 
• politics; 
• political scandals;  
• celebrity affairs, marriages, pregnancies, babies, and breakups;  
• sports of all kinds, including strange English sports;  
• science, environment, and technology;  
• Demi Rose Mawby;  
• many other models, starlets, girlfriends, wives, mistresses and less wearing swimwear, lingerie, and less;  
• and advice and opinion columns from many sources on many subjects.

They print fast, they change articles and headlines fast, and most importantly of all, they make great mistakes.

This article is interesting, because it's about a possible eruption of the subglacial volcano in Iceland, Grímsvötn.   This volcano is somewhat unique, because it's under Iceland's largest ice cap (Iceland has a few, and is also slowly losing the smaller ones).  Sometimes when it erupts the ash and lava and such doesn't even break the ice (ha), and all the results is a big glacial meltwater flood, the astonishingly well-named jökulhlaup.  Stronger eruptions do melt enough ice to break through, and then ashy clouds are visible emanating from the crater, as for all good volcanoes.  (See this picture from the previous eruption in 2011, which caused some airline flight cancellations, and you can search for more.  Picture, not flight cancellations.  We've already had too many of those.)

So, Grímsvötn may be on the cusp of erupting again.  That would be what volcanoes do, and it might generate more impressive pictures.  But this article is not about that, because, you see, according to the Daily Mail, an eruption of the volcano might endanger certain Icelandic reptiles.

If you don't believe me, take a look at the verbatim sidebar I screengrabbed right from the Daily Mail's Web site.  Read all of it, every word, from beginning to end.

See? I told you it was dangerous to Icelandic reptiles.

That being said, there really aren't any Icelandic reptiles.

Including toads.

So maybe they've been wiped out by previous eruptive activity.  After all, the meltwater flood from the volcano can wipe out entire toads.

(Bridges and roads have also been damaged by such events.)