Mice flee the eruption
An Icelandic field mouse. Mice have been scurrying above ground, seemingly disliking pollution seeping down into their burrows. Morgunblaðið/Ómar
Farmers at Svarfaðardalur in Eyjafjörður, North Iceland have noticed a lot of mouse tracks in the area recently. They connect this to pollution from the eruption at Holuhraun. Volcanologist Ragnar Stefánsson who lives at a farm in Svarfaðardalur believes that the rodents are fleeing sulphur dioxide pollution in the ground which they dislike.
"A farmer here told me that there was an great number of mice above ground instead of down in their burrows. He thought that was unusual as the weather has been pretty good and not very cold. He thought it might be connected to acid rain, or pollution from the eruption which the mice were fleeing," says Stefánsson. "I believe he may be right. There's been a lot of sulphur dioxide pollution in Svarfaðardalur. The valley is surrounded by high mountains and the air there is relatively still which means that pollution often stays in the valley. It's the same story in Eyjafjörður. This means that there are a lot of chemicals seeping into their burrows which they don't like."
He adds that farmers have complained of an unusual amount of field mice seeking shelter inside buildings. "Mice always seek indoors when its really cold, when the ground is frozen. Now they seem to be fleeing the pollution instead."
