Brief communication: Small-scale geohazards cause significant and highly variable impacts on emotions

Abstract

The impact of geohazards on the mental health of local populations is well recognised but understudied. We used natural language processing (NLP) of Twitter (now known as X) posts (nCombining double low line10341) to analyse the sentiments expressed in relation to a pre-eruptive seismic unrest and a subsequent volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2019-2021. We show that although these geohazards were of a small size and caused negligible material damage, they were associated with a measurable change in expressed emotions in the local population. The seismic unrest was associated with predominantly negative sentiments (positive-To-negative sentiment ratio of 1:1.3), but the eruption was associated with predominantly positive sentiments (positive-To-negative sentiment ratio of 1.4:1). We demonstrate a cost-effective tool for gauging public discourse that could be used in risk management.