Friday Flotsam: Iceland update, Kilauea slows down, videos of Colima and more!

The last thing I need -memories of ST.Helens I occasionally dream of flying that crater. There are adults now who don't remember, and I think it is worthwhile that the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory is doing this..

Good ol' socializing of losses!

It is amazing how long the Kilauea rift eruption has been going on. oh well, maybe activity will concentrate on the summit again and we'll get to see the return of a lava lake at Kilauea. Now that would be cool.

Lots of steam coming from the split boulder on Ãórólfsfelli and vodafone cams mayhaps something interesting in the plumbing

Erik! May I suggest something? (I'll do it anyway! ;) ) Apart from GT McCoy, there's another former St Helens pilot who has posted here, and I'm sure there are more on here with direct experience of those days and months. Why not invite them to share their memories and experiences of it? Remember the person (sorry, forgot your name) who told us how his father, who trained the Apollo astrounauts in geology had gotten a serious bollocking from Deke Slayton for saying that "Portland would be covered in ash from Mt Hood(?) any day soon"?

Funny you mention that idea, Henrik.

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/04/send_me_your_mt_saint_helens_…

Phew! Beat the deadline by 3 mins or I would really have looked the dunce! ;)

That Tongkoko eruption is really surprising. I wonder if it is another instance like last year's Karkar "eruption?" There should be some local observation if it actually happened.

Can you guess how much the water rose in the last few days at the bottom of Eyjafjallajökull's glacier ?

Before
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/04/…

After
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/04/…

Also, no report on Chaiten for a month now. I wonder if that eruption finally stopped?

@Mr Moho - I've also just been looking at the outflow levels from the foot of the glacier - I have some old screengrabs going back to when the ash eruption was in full swing and the difference is striking. My take is that is not water - the whole thing looks as if it slopes back up to the glacier snout anyway - I think it's debris that is building up the equivalent of an "alluvial fan". New water coming down is depositing material in what, given no more splurges, will be a new terminal moraine.

It may be of interest. Pathological Geomorphology has spent the month on deltas. In two posting, they discuss lava deltas:

geopathology.posterous.com/behold-the-owyhee-lava-deltapart-1
geopathology.posterous.com/lava-deltas-of-the-owyhee-river-or-part-2

@10 Anne I was just looking at the same thing. The big rock(?) just to the left of the snout has 2 curves on the bottom of it that curl into the edge of the snout. Previously they were quite high and now the lower curve is almost covered. The area between the two land masses where the flow exists appear to be at about the same level. The angle has sharpened quite a bit.

@Anne Scotland Thank you for pointing out the 'alluvial fan'. Suddenly the picture comes into focus for me.:-)

i've been thinking about that
"Big Round Split Boulder"
could we be looking at the cross section of a hugh ancient filled lava tube?
Best!motsfo

@#8 The bottom, Mr. Moho, the bottom - the former lake basin is now mostly filled with mud and rougher stuff from above, easily visible in Vodafone pics.

@motsfo
"could we be looking at the cross section of a hugh ancient filled lava tube?"

naa it's just a large lump of dragon scat

aside from that i think it could well be a lava tube or the end of a lava flow well eroded and the fractured part looks like the material it was resting on eroded away and loosing support it fractured and fell

what would be interesting if a large lava flow could build up and push it out of the ravine

@motsfo (#14). I've had the same thought myself many a time - until I noticed how much of it was being eaten away by the water rushing through. Could it be glacial ice?

I think the water/mud is flowing off the side into that huge crack now. Not easy to see, but it seems that way. Also steam is coming from there very occasionally.

At this rate, after weeks of watching blurry images, through volcanic ash, rain, snow and clouds...I may as well cancel my cable tv.

When I mentioned a few days ago that rock looked different, ie. a seperate sort of bit to the rest (scientifically speaking...) didn't someone say don't even think it? Can't remember the post though or what the exact reason was.

I think if it was ice it would be showing the bluish color of glacial ice it could be a remnant of a ah-ah lava flow

@Diane N Ca re: April 27#374
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bts_v9mqv3g&NR=1

Spotted on the volcano webcam...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

Cam viewing should be better tomorrow - IMO is calling for sunny with a NW wind.

@eddie 22: Not going bunny hunting in Iceland I'm not.

There is a hole in clouds now, and I see a ash like cloud coming from the volcano.

On the Poro cam a break in the clouds shows quite a bit of steam

QUITE A BIT? You say???

Interesting viewings at Porolfsfelli ... what looks like an ash cloud pretty low down, and oodles of steam coming from the vent...

The plume is showing on the vodafone webcam and it's brilliant orange ... perhaps caused by the sun, but way cool!

lovely orange plume at the top right of the vodafone cam

I don't know where all the meltwater is going (as it seems to have dried up) but if there's a blockage, I hope the people downsteam are ready for a flood.

21.28 GMT Did you see the copper-coloured glory visible through a gap in the clouds on the Vodafone cam! Absolutely gorgeous.

and poof the clouds close grrrRRRRR

I don't know where you get the impression that the flow of water has dried up; but if you look closely you see it gushing out of the gorge and spreading over the entire debris fan. The shape of the falls must have changed in the past days so that it doesn't produce as much mist as it used too, but the flow rate is definitely high.

I never imagined I'd be watching the death of a glacier on a webcam...

There is ash in the steam plume, you can see it collecting on the glacier...I don't think that it is shadow. Whoever said that Saturday morning is when we will see lava at the foot of the glacier deserves an E-beer.(I do not think that we will see it until then). I will try to find to post...

Clouds are blocking the orange plume on the vodafone webcam but you can get glimpses of it on the Valahnuk webcam.

This is so exciting after 3 days of snow :)

Valahnúk upper right side shows peeks at the orange plume ocasionaly

There must be a lot of ash in the plume because the background is almost black. Now if only all the clouds would go away so we can see evrything.

For those of you that do not have the links to the web cams.

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndaen.html

I am watching the Ãórólfsfell cam. The vodafone cam will not load for me.

It certainly appears we're seeing phreatomagmatic action further down the glacier than before - certainly beyond the active vents. Maybe by the end of the eruption we'll end up with another 'skerries' ridge...

@Kevin (34)

I based my comment about the water flow on my own observation and on Anna's observation in her post #10, that perhaps what we're seeing is more silt/debris and less water. I haven't seen any flow rate info for yesterday or today to know whether Anna and I are right or not.

From this layperson's perspective, it does look as though the opening on the glacier have been melted (or collapsed) into one longer opening. I have been watching Vodaphone for a while now, impressive at full screen :) It is where the main, vigorous steaming is emanting as of this moment.

There is quite a bit of ash burping in the background too. I have a hunch things are going to look very different in 24 hours there.

EYJ
http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/

Good view - eruption site - ash cloud is above the discharge key area. Wow how it has changed from day before yesterday.

On the Val cam previous eruption was far right on edge under the Mila label.

Wind NW but this looks not blow to center but straight up?

Gordys, MN USA....
It was me that said about the lava reaching the falls by Saturday....
I'm going away this weekend and won't be able catch up with the events till Sunday night :(
I'm not so sure it wont be early next week but if it is tomorrow and I get to hear about it, I'll have a beer and think of you lot...

#41, beedragon,

Anna's and my statements are not mutually exclusive. I agree that there is a large talus of rubble being built against the cliff, which grew several meters in the last day alone. But there is a lot of water on it. The level in the outlet channel and on the flood plain are quite obvious and on par with the hlaupses of a few days ago. Those might have had higher peak discharges, but this is a sustained high rate.

PS. My name is Koen, the abbreviation of Koenraad, the Dutch verion of Conrad.

@Koen (45) Sorry about getting your name wrong!

There's another thing that makes me think of a blockage, and that is that there's no steam coming from the lower opening.

The other day there was an huge amount of steam coming out from below.

I guess we'll find out in the next few days! I certainly don't mind being proven wrong.

@Chris: Have fun, enjoy the beer. We will see what happens...

Fire on the hole! A red flash at the top -

#46, beedragon,

No problem about the name. It happens a lot.

The steaming there seemed to occur right after a peak discharge. I guess water accumulated very close to the lava flow and could heat up significantly before the dams burst. That way the water could be hot enough to steam when it reached the opening. Somehow the creation of dams on the outlet flow seems to have stopped.

This does not mean there can't be any lakes forming up there. It is a large glacier...

If you missed viewing the copper plume on the vodafone webcam, you can see it archived here ...

http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

Change the time on the drag bars to hour 21 and the minute bar anywhere between 27 and 45.

Enjoy!

Wow! Finally!

The MÃla-Thórólfsfell web-cam showed clearly how far the lava flow has reached. The lava is creating this deep gash in the glacier as it goes, probably 200-300 metres wide.

Chris (#44): Don't fret. It will take a couple of days for the lava to emerge, to reach the lowland.

The daily Report from the Institute of Earth Sciences, Nordic Volcanological Center for the 30th of April:

http://www2.norvol.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption?191,32

Salient points - Eruption plume height 2.8km above summit (radar observation at 15.20), 4.5-5.1km steam plume (TF-SIF at 15.40). No meaurment of magma flow possible. Meltwater peaked at 200 m3 per second at 14.00GMT. Deflation confirmed. No measurable indications that eruption is about to end.

PS. At 200m3 per second, if sustained, the glacier would lose some 17 million m3 as meltwater every day, steam not included.

http://www2.norvol.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption

"Additional note: Plumes of white plume were noticed over GÃgjökull (15:40 GMT); this steam probably represents the position of the northward-flowing lava flow."

what is interesting in the eruption seems to have moved into or extremely close to the breach in the northern crater wall that has been the preferred route for water to exit the playing field,if dammed there may be a breach in the southern wall if so it will have to gain a much larger volume to start exiting there and then it will erode a path rather quickly the flow could be huge before it is over

The daily report by the "Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland" has been issued:

http://en.vedur.is/media/jar/Eyjafjallajokull_status_2010-04-30_IES_IMO…

Among others they report that "Steaming blocks of rock are being deposited in the GÃgjökull basin; these blocks are probably solidified lave from [the] eruption." Looks like the lava fall is getting closer to becoming visible. With some luck we might spot some incandescent material tonight already?

Build your own Eyjafjallajökull

Fancy your own table-top volcano? Well, with card, scissors, glue, and a little patience, you can build your own three-dimensional model of Eyjafjallajökull, courtesy of the British Geological Survey.

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/build-your-own-eyjafjallajoku…

Not the best picture on the Porolfsfelli cam at the moment, but you can clearly see how far down the slope the lava is!

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/

Fire light appears with a wider base than previously.

Not the best picture on the Porolfsfelli cam at the moment, but you can clearly see how far down the slope the lava is!

Posted by: beedragon Canada | April 30, 2010 7:13 PM

Unfortunately, unless the wind shifts, it looks like all that steam is going to block our view of the nightly lightshow from the Valahnúk cam.

We will just have to alternate between the Val and Poro cams because you get clear at times on one and not the other

Porolfsfelli cam looks like a surrealistic movie of a wizards fight rather pretty with the steam light from the bottom with fire balls rising from the ground

This is a link to how GÃgjökull(the glacier) was before the eruption. Thanks to Passerby for posting the link in an earlier thread, passerby acknowledged an earlier poster for this link, but I could not find that post. I apologize for not being able to thank the original poster of this link.

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/gigjokull-retreat-and-eru…

Unusual EQ's in the Bering Sea. Both events were at least 6.0. The orders of magnitude are not that great, but the location(s) are unusual, they are on the continenetal shelf.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010vscx.ph…

The RSO webicorder on Redoubt is just now recovering...
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webicorders/Redoubt/RSO_EHZ_AV.php

Folks: if you do not know how to copy-paste the name Ãórólfsfelli, at least you should have the smarts to figure out that the letter in the beginning is not a 'P'. In transliteration into the English alphabet, it's 'Th'; in fact, you had that letter, but it got dropped in times past. So, use the Icelandic letters, or use standard transliteration; in this case, write Thorolfsfell. (Is that ok? Anna? Jon?)

+1 to Kultsi; that's been irritating me for weeks now but I was too polite to say anything. It's *ignorant*.

#64 OT In the US very few schools offer a second language. Very few US citizens can speak a foreign language. Many of our colleges no longer require a foreign language. We are only bi-lingual if immigration has occured and the immigrate speaks two languages. With the US financial situation it will just get worse. So it really has nothing to do with smarts - just a missing aspect of the US educational system. I know in Europe with countries small and border countries a different language - speaking languages are more highly valued. Spanish language speakers may in the future out number the English speakers due to immigration.

Interesting show on http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/ . A few moments ago, we could see some "overflow" from the eruption illuminating to the left of the eruption. Seems we can see the lava flow at a times.

huge explosions on Ãórólfsfelli cam,, worth stopping up for. lol

Re OT.. Here in the UK learning a second language is compulsory in schools from ages 11-14.. All schools teach French, other languages available in some schools are German and Spanish..

OT Language Cultural Sensitivity

How to put foreign language characters into EMAIL:
http://email.about.com/od/netiquettetips/qt/et_any_char_win.htm

Each US computer Apple or Microsoft is different. This isn't a tech help site so if you can't do it on your own ask your IT-computer tech person at work or your local school computer tech person.

We can sometimes catch a faint fleeting light at the bottom of the image (outflow, I guess) on fimmvorduhalsi! Lava flow?

Birdseye, #21, thanks for that. What is the symbol just before the NR=1 at the end? I am not familiar with it. I don't see it on my keyboard.

Thanks.

@JB 69 et al - I have used for some time something called "Pop Char" loaded into my Mac (older and newer) - handy little icon will appear in Finder and offers a number of one-step insert possibilities.Perhaps there's a PC version. (And there's a BGS volcano in our house from whenever the first post came up earlier today on the old thread - thanks!)

@Diane71 This one has English too, the other one has less background noise. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSD0vRFhloI&feature=related

The other one is www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bts_v9mqv3g&NR=1
I just copy and paste or I mess up! (It's a capital 'and' sign - & - , sits above number 7 on my keyboard...)

#64
Sorry to all Icelanders in this blog for the mistaken spelling of âÃórólfsfelliâ. On my first posts, I used the Google translatorâs form âThórólfsfelliâ, but then I thought it had been assumed as a convention (which I find so cute) to just name it âPoro â like âPoro camâ, and âVala camâ, and I went on using the abbreviated forms (copy and paste is not so quickly available). Please, donât take it seriously. I am from Brasil (we spell it like this, with an âsâ not âzâ ) but who cares?. We must understand that in this new, globalized world, language should no longer be a barrier and English has been naturally accepted to be the global language. Can you imagine that we are people from so many different countries and cultures, all sitting here, days and nights, bewildered around this volcano (which name I donât dare to say aloud). Isnât that wonderful? All this time Iâve been enlightened from your scientific knowledge, poetry, Icelandic sagas, history⦠could that be any better? Please understand our mistakes, or else Iâll be intimidated to post further comments, and once again my apologies. ÃAKKA ÃÃR FÃLK FRà ÃSLANDI, Aà ÃVà ER DÃSAMLEGT LAND SEM Ãà HEFUR!
Renato (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/

No earthquakes in all of Iceland? Glitch? There were quakes reported on Vatnajokull at 9pm (ish) BST so those would not have gone off the maps yet.

There is no perfection to be found in any person...tolerance for our differences allows us to come together as a community. If this blog and its inhabitants upset someone perhaps this is not the place for them.

@Renato, It is we, the English speakers, who should apologise to you! I continually feel humbled by people all around the world who master my language in varying degrees, when I do not even attempt to master theirs. It should not take too much to realise from your name that you are possibly not British or American, and the comment about 'Poro' was, in my opinion, very petty. I saw your spelling, but it did not bother me, nor should it. I am, as I said, humbled by your command of English, and it would indeed be a shame if one rude remark prevented you from taking part in the future.

@74 Renato Well said. I for one don't worry about how correct or incorrect the use of a language is. I look for communication. A second language in America is still uncommon. I for example, have bilingual parents, but I am not. At the time (I am 56) being bilingual was a sign of not having separated from the "old country". We were in America now, not (fill in the blank) so we were supposed to speak English only. The world has now shrunk, but the mindset has not necessarily disappeared. Most Americans are not used to communicating with people from other countries. Therefore, recognizing different characters is "foreign" to them (pun intended). Even many educated people are like this. In my opinion, their loss. My keyboard can be switched to Spanish and German also. I'm not making excuses, just stating how it is. Please don't let this stop you from posting.
As a side note, how come Disney World is so popular with people from Brasil? :)

@Renato Please do not be intimidated and please keep posting we all try our best and that enrichs everyone's experience. Also like you name very similar to mine.

I posted these links before, but I don't think the comment was ever released from moderation.

Windows ALT keycodes: tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html
Activating the US International keyboard: support.microsoft.com/kb/306560

:)I most humbly thank you people for the wonderful time spent here! But,please, just ask Ãóró and Vala to come back to life!!!!
#78 Disney World? I thought it was popular all over this small world!There's even a park in Paris, isn't there? :)

@Dan I know you are from FL are you in a costal area?

@81 Renato You know now I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight because I now have that song in my head. LOL

@82 Renee Yes, in Pensacola. We are watching closely for the possibility of oil hitting our beaches. I am also on the WUnderground blog keeping up with the progress of the oil spill. They say oil may reach us as early as Monday, but no clue how much.

#74 Renato, eu sou Finlandês. That said, I think your sentiments about Iceland will be well received.

Why did I write my rant? It bothered me that after several pointers and nudges people still kept writing 'Poro' - that word has meanings in Finnish, but that is not the point - and the original could well be mangled into something that has very, very negative connotations in the place from where it originated. At least any Thorolf would not like being turned into Porolf.

Do we want that?

#83 ;) Dan We all hope it won't happen.

trying this
Ãórólfsfelli
Yeah!
Best!motsfo
and Thanks for the correction.

Well, back to lurking for me. Bye, it's been fun

#84 :) Kiitos neuvoja, Kultsi.
I understand that! Please, folks, copy that:
Ãórólfsfelli!!!!

@Kultsi, Askola, FI, In regards to the language situation I want to point out that it is common to replace the letter "Ã" with "T" or "Th". Depending on factors.

There should be daylight soon in Iceland. Daybreak is going to happen any time soon now.

@84 I believe if most here know they are saying something offensive to another person in another country they would not say it. It's hard enough when you have such varied linguistic backgrounds, but to get every little nuance or possible meanings of words is near impossible. I mean, really, this is an Icelandic word, on a blog where English is being used, read by a Brasilian, that evidently has a specific meaning in Finnish. Since for most on the blog English is a second language, pointers and nudges may not be understand. If something is offensive a direct approach might be more affective, especially if done tactfully.

@Renato - if we want a song in our heads, how about Manhã de Carnaval, sung by Elizete Cardoso?

# 89-91
That would be a great song to greet the new day. It says:
Morning, beautiful morning...
Morning, fallegur morgun ...
Huomenta, kaunis aamu...
××קר ×××, ××קר ××¤× ...
اÙØµØ¨Ø§Ø Ø ØµØ¨Ø§Ø Ø¬ÙÙÙ...

If you look really really hard you can see the ash plume LOL

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/iceland-volcano-plume.html

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/20-most-incredible-volcan…

Great photos of volcanoes from Space

@Renato + everyone

http://i41.tinypic.com/301mx6h.jpg

hardfiskur yum. I miss it so!

#93
There was a lot of lava and ash earlier this night. But then she calmed down...

#95 Nhum! Is that haddock? Love it!!!

It's so expensive in Brazil! We used to eat those with capers and cream at home. Miss it too!

I thought I saw shockwaves through steam on Valahnúk cam - Maybe it's time to go to bed, before some kind of UFO shows up. Night everyone!

Seriously? Dawn's breaking and the Ãórólfsfelli cam goes down? Someone's effing with us! :p

Then again, Valahnúk makes it look rather clouded in ATM.

Vodaphone also states Technical Problems

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43753

Another nice space pic

Val cam shows steam in the forefront and an ash plume behind it

101

Vodaphone also states Technical Problems

Posted by: renee | May 1, 2010 12:38 AM

Working for me. (although loading time demands some patience) Some clean snow on the mtn and on the "delta". I guess runoff has slowed during the night.

Beautiful weather on the Val Cam

no clouds that is all steam too bad we can't get a wider pic on the cam

What happened to the GOD webicorder? The others showed a moderate jump in activity at the same time that the 'corder went down.

with the vodafone webcam working again, I was able to do a partial time-lapse with the data from yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDoNvZc0P2I

The amount of meltwater is pretty big, and later in the time-lapse a lot of steam can be seen where the lava stream is eating away the glacier tongue.

cheers!

From 2004.

http://notendur.hi.is/oi/gigjokull_photos.htm

Looks like Eyjafjallavulcano is gone to sleep!

That's quite a crater in the top of the glacier now, the area where the lava entered the glacier.. steaming away, too.

Yes! Now I can see the crater. It`s huge! And it`s steaming too but not so much. The glacier has collapsed on the right side it looks like so at least.

If you zoom right in, you can see a small dark patch below the main dark crater area - that has recently started producing steam, too. Descending from that area looks very cracked, I wonder if it'll soon be a line of steam heading down and then collapse in?

@Sofia (#109) - the volcano is well alive and awake, it's just that for some time the bad weather has prevented us from seeing it. Now, if you look at the one working live webcam - Valahnúk - you will see it's producing a vigorous steam and ash plume and from the information the volcanologists give, the lava flow is proceeding slowly.

eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/

www2.norvol.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption

No sleep yet for the volcano, and for those who don't succeed in tearing themselves away from the computer screen while the fireworks are up at night ...

very interesting light on the outwash now, voda cams up for the moment. It highlights big variations in the surface channels.

At the moment the Valahnúk cam shows a much denser ash plume than what it would seem to be from the Vodafone camera.

@birdseyeUSA - yes, I thought it looked like there had been a slip or avalanche or flow from right to left down hill from the new crater.. either that or they've been piste bashing lol

Big hole up there on the glacier! And what's going on on the surface of the next valley to the left? Looks as though there was some sort of flow from the new cavity, or perhaps just heat eroding the surface with prevailing wind?

@Helen Leggatt:

I remember your mentioning that you live in a farming community and that you are concerned about the welfare of the farmers and livestock in the area affected by the ash fall.

Here's a slide show you probably haven't seen. The pictures are 10 days old, from the time the ash fall was really heavy. They've since managed to clear away most of the ash, the weather turned nice and the fields started to turn green. But the day before yesterday ash started falling anew, turning the land black again.

Some of the ash is so light that it floats on the sea, forming huge "carpets" that are drifting into the fishing port of the Westman Islands, causing engine failure in the fishing boats. So now they're cleaning up ash there too. Eyja is certainly keeping people busy.

http://www.mbl.is/myndasafn/safn/1660/

@ Kultsi, Dan, Renato, JB, David,

I'm not at all offended by the 'Poro' moniker. Perhaps on a linguistics blog one would expect commentators to be familiar with all kinds of hidden characters on their keyboards ...

@Anna 118. Thank you for the link to the amazing slideshow.

There are quite a few images (16, 31, 89, 94, 96, and 111) that show the glacier tongue quite well and provide more of an idea of the scale and the changes over the last week or so.

Another image that I thought was excellent for providing a sense of scale is 134 (look for the little people).

And image 135 is just plain weird. Do you see what I see?!

There was a documentary about Eyja on Nat Geo tv channel last night in the UK. They interviewed a lady farmer who was stuck in the most horrendous ash fall with her sheep and baby lambs. The tv crew asked her to leave with them but she chose to stay with her livestock. What a brave lady, I really hope that she can get her farm up and running again after this is all over. The longer this eruption continues the worse it must get for some people, it must be hard to carry on when there is no end in sight.

the upper cauldrons are steaming, they were all quiet a while back. Let's see if the water picks up again. (Such minutiae, but that's what keep us non-pros watching...)

#97: Yes, Renato, it's haddock, allright. We call it 'ýsa', with a feminine gender.

Oh, and when folk sa mention the 'Poro cam', I tend to replace Poro with the Swedish word 'porr' = 'porn' in English. And then I have to remind myself harshly that there are (usually) no boobs on that cam - until a tour group passes by and starts acting that way.

@beedragon120, and thanks to Anna118 A great compilation (including, must be, the lady herself in 135? She's looking rather too pleased...)
Seriously, the photos give a view beyond the spectacular, and help us try to imagine the assault on all the senses as well as the strain of endless coping over the long haul.

Apropos of last nights' conversation, very interesting conversation about language(s) and the internet at www.onthemedia.org/topics/the_internet/1 Available as podcast, no transcript yet.

The clouds are periodically breaking up on the Vodafone cam showing the ash cloud now. Still chugging along...

This is what I saw earlier this morning on Valahnúk cam. I was too sleepy to be sure of my eyes, so I just captured a screenshot. It happened so quickly, I almost missed it. I thought they might have been "shokwaves" (or just a windgust?). I'm not sure they could be seen on a low-resolution video. What do you think?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jwzm2rlmm4n/shockwaves.jpg
And here another of my pictures taken on april 22nd. One of my best. You can see the glacier still holding on to the slope.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jwzm2rlmm4n/AshEyjaf.jpg

That white streak on the water that can be seen on Vodafone camera, at first I thought it was a light reflection, but I now think it's a strong jet of water coming from the glacier opening. Any thoughts on this?

#125 Birdseye, thanks for the link! With the quality of the podcast, there is little need for transcription, really.

@MrMoho128 I think you're right - looks as though it's cutting behind the upper side of what earlier this morning looked like a big washout gully. Things have changed in the watercourse, wonder what we missed overnite...

I have been wondering why do they say that "..there are NO indications that Katla is about to erupt." (hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html).. Wikipedia states that Katla's eruption has been expected since 1999 - and now suddenly they say that this risk disappears as Eyja started to erupt (even though Eyja's eruption has usually preceeded Katla's eruption)..?! Find this a bit discrepant particularly taking into account the large amount of tremor activity and earthquakes around Katla during the last two weeks.. Could someone please explain to me why the risk of Katla's eruption has now disappeared and what would be the earliest signs of Katla's eruption?

@MrMoho128 on the other hand you can see new water coming and it's dirty- might be light after all, it doesn't seem to change at the downstream end.Also using the rock/ice face curve to measure, the water is down a lot or has carved away a lot - more flow seems to have gone to the left and at the moment the overflowing part doesn't go all the way right.

#128 I'd say it's meltwater from top of the glacier, coming down from the right-side gorge. In the larger picture you can trace the channel goin up and to the left. It's cleaner water, as there is not much mud on top of the glacier and it's probably mostly from recently fallen snow.

Check the Hvollsfelli cam

#134 I'd say new water into the fire...

#131 Just being curious:
I really don't get what's being said about Katla (I'm no expert on the matter, just wondering)
"The present volcanic repose is among the longest known in historic times, but monitoring of ground deformation and seismicity does not reveal any signs of reawakening." - http://www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_katla1918
"In 1999 there was a glacial outburst at Katla volcano, possibly caused by a small eruption under the ice. (...)The source of the melting was a depression formed in the glacier surface. The flood was preceded by a burst of seismic tremor. (...) Geothermal activity at Katla increased since 1999." - http://www.volcanolive.com/katla.html
My question is: if there was an eruption in 1999 why should it be considered "overdue"? What it takes to call the 99 event an eruption?

@just being curious (#131) Where to start? The tremor at hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html#googtrans/auto/encomes from Eyjafjalla in spite of the "Katla2009" in the URL. There have only been a few earthquakes at Katla during the entire period from February, look at Soucel's excellent time-lapse of the activity leading up to the first Fimvörduhals eruption at islande2010.mbnet.fr/2010/03/eyjafjallajokull-levolution-des-dernieres-heures/ and you will see what really intense activity looks like. In the same period, February-to-present, there has been greater earthquake activity at volcanoes such as Bardarbunga, Askja, Torfajökull, Herdubreid, Kistfell and about a half-dozen others than at Katla. Finally, if you go to www2.norvol.hi.is - the website of the INSTITUTE OF EARTH SCIENCES, Nordic Volcanological Center - there is a great deal of useful information. I can assure that the professional's view of the connection between Eyjafjallajökull volcano and Katla is quite different from that you pick up in the press or on many websites!

Btw, welcome!

Have not seen the webcams since Wednesday and bot what a difference. The melting and steaming are way up.

Well, I missed the discussion last night about language. I appologize for using a "P" when refering to the cam. I don't know how to do it otherwise except to now use "Th" instead.

I once was talking to someone from England and we were discussing the various differences in what people say and the slang. People here in the US think they can go to England and do just fine because the language is the same, right? Wrong! My friend told me that at times she would call her mother and tell her to "knock me off in the morning" meaning "give me a call and wake me up". We both agreed that it could have very different connotations here in the US!

I have another on for you. This is really funny. A guy I know was in Romainia and they have some kind of soup there that, well, some people would not appreciate. He did try it and was polite about it and word got around that he liked it. He was eating with several others on another occations and the subject came up. He said, "Oh, that is caca." Ooops! One of the locals that was helping him whispered, "Jack, some things are the same!" So the word meant the same thing in Romanian as English!

Anyway, I will see if I can get the right letter or just use Th. I am not very computer saavy and I don't know how at the moment to get other language letters. So please be patient.

As for the weather, um, well, I am not seeing much. Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy. Maybe later it will clear up a bit better. I guess we will see. Waiting again. Arg!

I think, Erik, you'll need a Katla Special on your blog soon...

#131: The geologists say there are no indications because their instruments show none. No Evil Secret Conspiracies there. Some of'em may even have loved ones in the area.

They base what they say on what they know about Katla's own system of magma chambers and pathways. That system probably doesn't connect with that of Eyjafjallajökull until somewhere deep down.

If I understand what I've read correctly, the geologists think that this eruption may actually be taking pressure off Katla. If so, good on ye.

Katla isn't Old Faithful. She doesn't erupt on a set schedule. She'll erupt one day, all right, but it won't be until SHE is good and ready. And hopefully the geologists will get plenty of warning beforehand from their GPS recorders and seismometers.

@just being curious #131 The reason they are saying that there are no indications that Katla is about to erupt is that there just is no evidence that we should be concerned about an imminent eruption.

It's very tempting to talk about volcanoes and other natural events in terms of being "overdue", but that's not really how they work. Let's take the example of a "50-year storm", i.e. a storm of a size that is expected, on average, every 50 years. Now, statistics can take all the data on storms of certain size and when they occurred and then give us an average length of time in between these storms. But it can't tell us when the next storm is going to happen, which is why you can get two "50-year storms" within a few years of each other, and it's still a "50-year storm" because you're taking centuries of weather data and averaging it. That can only tell you about the past, not the future.

Volcanoes are the same. We can take data about the frequency of eruptions, but that doesn't tell us much about when the next eruption is going to actually take place. Volcanoes are complex systems that can change over time. They sleep for centuries then explode into life again, or they die off completely, or they make small, frequent burps instead of big eruptions⦠They aren't mechanical systems that repeat the same behaviour after the same time interval.

So whilst it's tempting to say that Katla is 'overdue', (and I know I've succumbed to that temptation before), there is no eruption prediction date that she has 'missed'. Statistically, it might look like she's overdue, but that's really just a construct created by us humans to try to rationalise an unpredictable event.

Iceland is a very seismically active area, so a few earthquakes and a bit of tremor in the Katla's area doesn't signify that she's about to wake up. There is what appears to be an historic link between Katla and Eyjafjallajökull, but again, that doesn't tell us much about whether Katla will erupt this time, or not. And if she does, there's nothing to tell us when she might blow.

So geologists look for signs - increased seismic activity, degassing, etc. (others can explain better than I) - that might indicated an eruption coming, and at the moment they are not finding any of those signs. So there are no indications that she's about to let loose.

Risk is not the issue here. As I understand it, here is a pretty high likelihood that Katla will erupt again at some point (i.e. she is not classified as a dead volcano), so one could say that, over geological timescales, the 'risk' she's going to erupt is 100%. What we are much more concerned with is, Is she going to erupt soon? Answer: We have no real clue right now.

So don't worry, there is no discrepancy!

Somebody joked about getting a pair'o'b*bs on the web cam. Well, I did, sorta, on the Vodafone cam - and fortunately copied the pic, as she was gone the next moment and the pic never ended in the archive.

Hoo-boy... I almost want to go skiing on Eyji now.

Eyja is looking very pretty on the Voda-cam now with her duo-plume, the white steam and the ash plume behind.

Lots of steam but not much water seems to be coming out ...

Voda seems to be overloaded in eastern US but Mula cam shows both eruption and steam to left

You're 'luckier' than me, then. I've seen a fair few tourists acting like total boobs, though. (boob = slang for 'idiot')

If I have my geography right, on the Hvolsvelli cam, you can just make out the steam plume from the lava flow puffing it's way down the left flank of the mountain. (sort of at 10:00 from the house on the hill)

for newer viewers, mula cam is www.mulakot.net/myndavelar.html

I did just see a smoke ring come from Eyjafjallajökull.

Here is the picture of the smoke ring.

http://www.jonfr.com/myndir/v/geology/eyjafjall2010/Smoke_ring_16_13_1_…

@birdseye

"Voda seems to be overloaded in eastern US but Mula cam shows both eruption and steam to left"

That's a crying shame because the Voda-picture is postcard pretty.

@149: that's visible on Hvolsvelli and Vodafone.

Reynir, "boobs" means the same thing here in the US, idiots. It an also refer to something else, too. LOL Many years ago there was a joke here in the US about who has the biggest "boobs" here. Answer: Mrs. Carter. Her sons Billy and Jimmy. Very old political joke.

I checked the cams and I am seeing a combination of clouds, steam and ash, but it is hard to really see what is going on. Does anyone know about the lava flow?

more activity?

Henrik yep I don't even fault Beatty for the way the British handled their ammunition....I do fault him for closing the distance with Hipper and losing the advantage of longer ranged guns. Also Beatty didn't do the most important thing he was tasked to do....communicate the the Germans positions to Jellicoe. If you ask me Beatty suffered from the same faults as "Bull" Halsey....more courage than brains. Room 40 actually won (strategically) the Battle of Jutland for the British;)

Definitely more activity, at least for a while: a heavy ash plume and now lots of steam spewing from the Gigjökull lava channel.

Difficult to tell with interaction of steam and low cloud, but steam column seems visibly higher than screen shot I took an hour ago.

Hmmm. Seems to be some clearing on the Hvo cam. The Vala cam still has a lot of clouds on it or maybe it is a lot of steam and ash. I do see the ash.

Definition of idiot: jerk, dunderhead, bonehead, the other two words for donkey, also the word "idiot", alpha hotel (anybody here who has flown will know that one) and I am sure you have the idea. ;-P

@Henrik,Reynir, Suw and all
Thank you once more for the precious information. I went through the article http://www.vedur.is/media/vedurstofan/utgafa/skyrslur/2009/VI_2009_013… (skipped the technical details) and it really helped, along with your explanations posted here, to better understand the processes involved in such a complicated system. I just highlighted some parts below:
"The two volcanoes seem to be interconnected, since both of Eyjafjallajökullâs eruptions happened in connection with eruptions in the Katla system and the E-W striking fissure swarm of Eyjafjallajökull joins
with Katlaâs radial fissure system (Einarsson and Brandsdóttir, 2000)."
"Special interest is paid to the 1996 seismic swarm near the crust-mantle boundary, which could have marked the beginning of the 1999â2000 unrest and is the first such recorded in Iceland." (a common magma source?)
There has been already a lot of information on Katla on this blog, and the more we dig, the more we find. We all hope that both the Eyjaf eruption and the 99 Katla event may have exhausted the system's capacity of generating a larger eruption. Icelanders and Europe deserve some peace for now. Let us just enjoy all the beauty granted by Eyjafjallajökull.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=map fogot link sorry

Diane, it has puzzled me for a long time whether 'boob tube' referred to the boobs watching it or the boobs used to attract the former type. And, yes, I do know of this dual meaning.

Awesome view on Múlakot cam:
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalmulaen.html

@149 Jon could you look at the link i put in #160 would these correspond to the god and mid lines of your helicorder and the 2 very strange measurements?

Sun's light, black,white, blue
Eyafjallajökull
A knife in my heart

@Reynir #161 In the UK, in the 80s at least, 'boob tube' was also an item of clothing, specifically an elasticated tubular top for ladies which was held up primarily by friction. Always hated them myself, but they were popular with ra-ra skirts. ;)

Poro is Finnish for "reindeer". In other words, saying "Poro" in Finnish is just as offensive as saying "duck" in English. It's a wrong transliteration, but not offensive by any means.

@renee, I am not seeing anything unusual on the tremor plots or on the earthquake maps. But the harmonic tremor appears to be growing on this moment. That is a bad sign if it keeps it up at the current rate.

Is lava coming down the other side now on Hvolsvelli? I know we have had a bad few days of viewing, but I am getting a bit confused. It seems to have picked up in the last 30min, almost reminds me of a week+ ago.

Reynir, I know what you mean. I am not sure where that came from, but "boob tube" I think refers to some of the nonsense that is on it and also some of the people who watch that nonsense. Here, the media is mostly one-sided and that is all I am going to say about that. It gets too political.

I like some of the programs that are about history or nature. We watched the program about Eyjaf last night and I found it was interesting and also a bit shallow compared to this blog. But they did have a great experience and they also learned something from it. I think one of the most important parts of the show was them showing what can happen on a glacier. They did cover the dangers very well. Going to see a volcano is not all that easy and can be deadly. I have been on top of Mt. Lassen twice and I didn't have any problems except for my knees. (It took climbing Lassen to find out I have a problem with both of them. Boo!) Yet, there was a fatality up there when a couple of kids sat on a wall area and part of it fell on them and killed the boy. So even a non-erupting volcano can have its dangers.

I can tell you, though, if I could do it again, I would. It is a really neat climb and you can see Shasta from the top. I would have loved to have had time and energy to explore the top. I love the Lassen area. There are places that are much like Yellowstone and remind me of the Grand Tetons, too.

It anyone would like to know of a good book to read about California geology, I can recommend "Assembling California". I don't remember the geologist's name, but it is a good book to read. It is the same geologist that claims the Gulf of California will eventually open up and go into Nevada. At one time the Salton Sea was connected and there is supposed to be a Spanish ship buried out in the desert somewhere. That may just be a legend, but it could also be true. Sort of like the Lost Dutchman's Mine. At any rate, I did check on the idea of the area opening up and it is according to seizmologists. Not doubt the quake in Baja was part of that sequence. The faults run in that direction and the San Andreas is part of the system. There is faulting that runs up into Nevada and I suppose in several million years, there will be water there.

I guess I have rambled long enough. :-)

#166 'poro' also means 'grounds' as in 'coffee grounds', actually anything (discarded) of the same consistency. That's not offensive, either, nor did I say that any meanings of 'poro' were, in Finnish.

Copy/paste is a good way of getting difficult words, strange letters, etc. right: paint over the text, press , go where you want to put it, press and that's it. That way there's no risk of offending the locals. If something of theirs is funny or offensive in one's own language - well, then it is, no helping that.

#165: Oh? Always thought that was a 'tube top'. Oh, well. I'm a bloke, anyway.

#169: Reminds me of tha guy who stopped watching musicals. "Too much sax and violins," he said.

Wonder if the position of the steam vents means that the lava follows the west side of the valley.

What is it that makes people ham it up in front of a camera?

next they'll have to put up a fence.....hey guys, we can't see the water if you stand there!!

I'm just glad there's no sound from me to them. Why the cam were playing "A Swinging Safari" would no doubt confuse them.

I wish that "Shasta lenticular" would get out of the way! Maybe we could see just what steam and ash is where and if any lava is coming down the pike. I hope it will clear enough to see any Strombolian activity tonight and if any lava is flowing over the glacier.

Reynir, I think it is the same thing (people hamming it up on a camera) that people go on Facebook or Youtube or what have you. It seems there are those who are scared to get on camera and those who just want to have fun being a goofball. Oh, that is another term for "idiot."

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/ Is this really going on?

All the Icelanders here are sterling people and our friends who have been to Iceland say the same. However, there are some of those who walk in front of the webcams (such as the very big, bald guy in the orange and black jacket with a few teeth missing) who would make me think twice about going, so could the Iceland Tourist Board please fence off the area as potential visitors might be deterred... ;)

Looks like NW-ly wind there. If it holds or veers N, there's hope for clear enough sky to see what's going on tonight.

Down in front! :)

For anyone new: Click on my name to see a map of various features around Eyjafjalljökull, and for links to information sources.

#176: I was wondering if he'd tear the cams off and throw them down the cliff.

The Markafljót level is slowly sinking, the temperature is up and the conductivity is down. Less direct water/lava interaction, IMO.

I can see more right now on the Vala cam than I did earlier. At least I can differentiate between cloud, steam and ash.

@renee176 - it's Iceland - lots of tremors -but here's a great link about frequency and strength...very helpful in understanding when to get excited!
islande2010.mbnet.fr/2010/03/eyjafjallajokull-levolution-des-dernieres-heures/

#179. "Throw them down the cliff"? My thoughts were rather "Is he going to have them raw or will he use mustard and ketchup?" ;)

#183: Nah, more likely the works: Mustard, ketchup and remoulade. Maybe even a but of hamburger sauce as well.

Renee, I have a term I use for the all the quakes we have in CA: backgound noise. Most of the quakes we have here don't mean anything. I think the same holds true for Iceland. Some of the quakes are just background noise and nothing more. The ridge is just active and moves just like the San Andreas. There is one town in CA where that fault goes right through town: Hollister. Almost every year they have to repair main street because of the offset. That is fault creep. With the Mid Atlantic Ridge on Iceland, they also have creep. The difference there is it is going apart, not sliding past each side of the rift. There are fracture zones that I am sure slide as they are strike/slip. But for the most part, the country is dividing and hence the rift we have seen in pictures and in documentaries about it. Iceland is a very interesting place for geologists and volcanologist to visit. In fact, John Seach is there now. At least he was and probably still is.

I wouldn't worry about the quakes unless they start another swarm someplace. I hope that doesn't happen.

Is the round grey patch that the lava is bypassing be the other end of the rock circle at the head of the valley??

Did you see the mudflow a few minutes ago att the vodafone camera? Really thick mud it seems.

Oh, well... looks like it's back to the test card on the Vodafone cams.

Vodafone camera working again - perhaps a tourist tripped over the cable :)

Many thanks for the comments regarding Katla (#136, #137, #140 and particularly Suw #141), all very informative to me. I didn't suspect that the information regarding Katla would be misleading, just wanted to understand *why* are they saying that she will not erupt.. True that I did not know the baseline levels not to mention any geological details of the system... Would be intrested to read more about predicting Katla's activity, the change that took place in the late 90's and the connection between Eyja & Katla. And yes, let's keep our fingers crossed that she will continue sleeping...

Best view right now seems to be on Hvolsvelli cam, full screen, with angled laptop screen. :)

The Hvolsvöllur cam is a masterpiece right now.

*Shakes fist at Dan.*

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

I haven't observed this webcam enough to know how to interprete the size of this ash cloud - it larger than the steam. The Ash plume is above the low level steam/cloud cover.

Icelandic to English translation by computer from mbl.is/Fréttir

Several studies by scientists today, including from the air, do not indicate a change in the progress of the eruption of which has been in recent days, as stated in the memorandum that the Icelandic Meteorological Institute and University emit tonight.

Lava flows continued to the north by a channel GÃgjökli. There you can see white bólstrar. Magnús Tumi estimates, however, that lava will two and a half to three miles, to go down GÃgjökul. With the same extension, it would take quite a long time.

birdseye
Your computer translated kilómetrar as miles?

@Bjarni196 - not my computer, an online service - Trans Star - they ask for help in making better translations - volunteer??

"Meltdown, volcano: Weary Icelanders ask, what next"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100501/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_iceland_s_rollercoas…

birdseye, 197
Maybe (probably not :). Can't find it with Google though.

@Bjarni199 www.stars21.com/translator/icelandic_to_english.html

According to a team that looked at GÃgjökull today, the washout has caused a change in elevation of up to 30m (100ft) at the tip.

@193 Bjarni What, I'm just a faster typist maybe. LOL
Your spelling is different anyway. Mine is copy and paste from Mila web site.

http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

available US West Coast now but it loads slow - give it 5-10min and it auto updates 10-20 secs

It can give you motion sickness! But I can get a quick peek - few seconds or study as it loads.

They say do not refresh your page on this site with the load.

Regarding night visibility: My home town is as far north as Eyjafjallajökull, and for at least a month of summer, even at midnight it is possible to read a newspaper by the ambient light (barring an overcast sky, ash clouds, fog etc.).
So you should have plenty to see around the clock, whether by webcam or by being there in person.
The morons who block the web cams will be gone during the nights, so it should make things easier.

I am getting really good pictures from the Hvolsvelli cam right now, compared to the Vodafone transmission which as appears much darker.

Does anybody know if this is due to the resolution of the webcams or their position with respect to the available light?

I think it has to do with the exact type of webcam in each place. All of the cams on Ãórólfsfell lose their sight before the others.

The Valahnjuk webcam has a good picture too, in the sunset http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/

Re 205, I meant Valahnuk. Sorry.
It may well be picking up more light as it appears to be at a higher altitude.

Unfortunately most of the action on the Valahnjuk cam is happening on the other side of the steam plume.

I hope the Ãórólfsfelli web cam is fixed tomorrow. The vodafone web cam is really hard to watch with the constant reloading but it's at the best angle (until the Ãóró cam is back).

Personally, I think the view Vala is getting is so b4y gorgeous, I want to see it ona poster.

#205: Ãórólfsfell is about 130m (440ft) taller than Valahnúkur.

@Gordon: I think that Mila uses better cameras which can deal with less light and still deliver a good picture.

Sigh - how lucky we are - and yes, Reynir, a poster, please...

Hvolsvelli is getting the show now! The steam plume is dramatically lit by incandescence... Just gorgeous.

I just have to think about the "little dragon that could" story that was posted here a while a go...

Fra Hvollsvelli camera putting on a good show - wish it were higher resolution and that we could HEAR!

Time for bed. Aberdeen, Scotland is on the wrong side of Iceland timewise for watching in the dark. This has been my first chance to watch sunset over Eyjafjallajökull. It was worth the wait.

While watching the Hvolsvelli cam, it seems to me that the eruption had spread out quite a bit. Steam on the left, which I believe is being lit up from below and to the right where the lava keeps appearing. If it stays clear I think we'll see this well lit show all night.

Hat beastie in tossing lava several hundreds of meter above the surface of the glacier that we can see then add to that the depth of the hole in the ice could well add up to a fountain of over a Km
the cam is if i am not mistaken about 30 Km away from the eruption site

@218 Gina If what you say is correct, and I have no reason to doubt you, then those balls of fire it keeps spitting out must be huge. Quite a display tonight. Nice diversion for me tonight from the approaching oil disaster to our beaches.

Also note how tremors still keep rising in intensity... I wonder what's up for next hours!

the Hvolsvelli cam has not had direct line of site to the crater it has on clear days shown the ridge with the plume rising behind it so exactly how far below the ridge the crater is + the height above the ridge + the depth of the hole = mind boggling energy

US Gulf of Mexico off-shore oil rig collapsed and speading oil onto US beach line - Lousiana to Florida.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/bracing-environmental-disaster-10527489 US Commercial TV News

An unstoppable oil eruption of a different kind expected to be bigger than Alaska Valdez - BUT there has been some news reports of how our drilling into the crust may influence these other events such as Volcano eruptions. Any science there.

What's going on on Hvolsvelli cam? Is it merely a lava flow? Looks like a whole new vent erupting. I've been away for a while and look at this! What a show!

@Dan that is a horrible mess it will totally trash the tourist business in the eastern gulf and the price of fuel in ct jumped .15 today to 3.15/gl today, wasn't it BP that had a refinery in texas go bang about 2 years ago due to poor to no safety precautions bet they "hedged" it though

It's really very sad to see those news. And little can be done to avoid disaster. I don't see how mankind will ever learn. It's another horrible blow to people from Louisiana and USA. :(

@224 Gina BP owns the refinery in Texas City TX that had an explosion a few years back. Yes they ignored warnings.

@225 Renato What's bad is that mankind do learn, but often ignores what they learn.

on Valahnúk cam some interesting views as the clouds or plume allows sight, mostly deep red hopefully the wind will clear the obstructions away

vodafone is showing a interesting light show now

The action in the Hvolsvelli is great (though I wish MÃla would tilt the camera up or zoom in so those two bright lights wouldn't be in the picture). The plume was visible on the Surtsey webcam this evening - but just barely. Hopefully some people with good photographic equipment are out shooting tonight.

@Dan, I was just watching the news and I didn't see your reply. How many ash clouds, oil leaks, katrinas, what it takes to stop human stupid greed?
We'd better stick back to Eyjlaf - I still don't understand if that is just reflected glow or a flow or a vent. The crater is there, but the glow at left of Hvolsvelli is unceasing.

The tremor amplitude has been rising and has now jumped to the highest in two weeks.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html
hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/eyja_trem_auto.png

To me it looks like steam being lit from below and to the right. This steam looks like it actually starts even farther left. Then a little right is darker, either thick steam the light can't penetrate or ash? Then the nice fireworks. And on the right more dark which i suspect is ash based on earlier today, possibly mixed with steam. Kind of nice having some moonlight. You can even see the snow line.

@232: from here it looks even more impressive:
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/god_trem.gif

Well, I've been away most of today and didn't see the action. But right now on the Hvolsvelli webcam it looks like a constant, strong glow on the left side that hasn't been there before. The eruptive activity at the main crater looks similar to what we've seen before.

Is there a new fissure towards Ãórólfsfell? Too bad that webcam is down right now.

By the way, from the Vodafone camera (which isn't very far from the Ãórólfsfelli camera) at times some glowing is visible from three different spots.

It's certainly doing a pretty good 'lighthouse of the North Atlantic' tonight. With luck the Ãórólfsfelli cam will come back soon; the Mila cams all seem to auto-reboot around this time of night and maybe that will fix it... although it was at this same time last night that Ãórólfsfelli rebooted and *didn't* come back!

I grabbed a screen capture from Vodaphone showing clearly where the lowest glow is down the glacier - come daylight I'll be able to correlate it to a visible feature, most likely a hole in the glacier.

Looks like the beginning of a cloud free sky in Iceland. This is the earliest I have seen dawn on the cams.

Mr. Moho & Fireman

Indeed, vigorous fountaining and quite a show (particularly on the Hvolsvelli cam). A few moments ago there were three distinct sources of light up there.

A few more hours and we will be able to see how much change the night has brought.

Let me correct that: NOT a few more hours, just a few more moments - it's getting brighter by the moment already.

I see 3 areas of either ash or steam. The main area with a darker ash plume with lava spewing every now and then, a large area of steaming and a smaller area to the left of that. Must just be the lava flow but I thought the glacier was that trough like area in the middle. Looks like a good day for volcano viewing today.

The eruption as seems to have widened.

I'm even seeing they lava fly on the Mulakot cam.
You can see a capture I made here:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4569370711_4076c10cbc_b.jpg

Hvolsvelli camera now clearly shows 3 ash/steam plumes.

the tremor plots in #232 are now down

@245 Looks like a server problem.

On the Valahnúk cam steam is now originating from completely off cam to the right.

I just returned from photographing the volcano and spent several hours as the sun set on the flats below the vodaphone cam. As the sun was setting, two plumes were clearly visible. One is all steam which is clearly coming from the lava flow melting the glacier. Higher up is a plume that pulsed with ash accompanied by booms and showers of incandescent material thrown high into the air.

The steam plume is lit by strong incandescence from the lava below and extends about halfway down from the summit to the valley floor. As it got dark, a large part of the plume glowed orange. I just got back to my hotel and you can still see the incandescence on the cams despite the sun coming up.

Amazing stuff

Wow....the dragon is really angry today;)

dawn slowly sneaks up on vodafone

looking at the glow in the steam clouwd i wonder if there isn't a active lava lake under it

She has woken up from her nap and is shaking off all that frsh snow.

Watching Hvolsvelli cam and looking at the house on the hill, then the fireballs being thrown in the air. Those things are HUGE.

Someone better go wake Boris and Erik.

@274 Woodson You know we're all jealous of you, LOL
But maybe you can wake some people up and tell them the connection to the tremor graphs are all off line. ;)

Thórosfélli is back!

Do I see a lava lake? It's so beautiful anyway!

Ãórólfsfelli is back on line yaaaa
mas quantities of steam coming from the glacier tongue and impressive fountain activity up hill

Well Ãórólfsfelli has rebooted itself as I predicted :-)

From my watching tonight I have prepared an image showing the three glowing areas seen by myself and others, and the corresponding feature by semi-daylight; circled in red in this self-explanatory image:

http://www.corestore.org/3glows.jpg

There seems to be no shortage of lava, and it's progressed further under the glacier than I had suspected.

If it's a flow, there's a lot of lava coming down.

on lava lake how deep is the caldera and how far down does the breach in the wall go where the gigj glacial tongue is

The mouth at the bottom of the glacier doesn't appear to be having such a big flow - in fact, although image v. grainy, it looks like it's clogged up?

I tossed the idea of a possible lava lake as a potential explanation of the really nice constant glow under the large steam cloud all night

Here are 2 images of the steam and ash plumes I saw tonight along with strong incandescence and explosive activity. These images are about 3 hours old and illustrate what many are seeing on the webcams tonight.

Cheers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49883902@N08/show/with/4570132526/

PS I am from the US, so I am not sure who to bug about the seismic instruments going offline

@Woodson, you deserve a Pulitzer! Thanks for posting.

I don't think there is a lava lake like Nyiragongo's, with the source vent directly underneath. What I think is happening is that the lava-ice interaction has caused a series of pools to form, each lower than the next. The red glow we saw last night is the glow from the pools. That's my totally un-educated guess. :)

I just noticed that up near the top there looks to be one last ice bridge. If so, it will make quite a puff of steam when it falls in.

Woodson - so jealous of your experience. The shots are beautiful - I hope you don't mind but I shared the link on another forum on which we're following the eruption. Thanks for sharing you lucky, LUCKY thing!!

The Mulakot cam is worth a look too!
http://www.mulakot.net/images/myndavelar/14flugv.jpg

Breathtaking webcams & @Woodson also :)

@Helen
i also see no water flowing so will the melt seek the breach in the southern crater wall?

@261 Helen I agree, it looks like the flow has slowed a fair amount. Great cams, moving lava steam everywhere, and have to call it a night. I just KNOW I'm going to miss something tonight. :(

Woodson, awesome shots. Actually helped understand what I've been watching all night.

Woodson, just awesome. Your pics are beautiful.

I have been watching and now I need to go to bed. :-( I a very tired. I still want to watch, though. It is really something to see and it was worth the wait.

Catch you all in the morning.

Cheers from the Sierras.

@Gina - glad someone else noticed it. I do wonder where the water is going - or whether so much more of it is being turned into steam that there isn't as much of a flow. Either way, the water has/will find another way out - where might that be?

I have a question, am just curious so hope someone can help. If black ashy smoke is caused by water flowing into the crater and mixing with lava, how come the lava flowing down beneath the glacier doesnt make lots of black smoke too? There has to be loads of water pouring around the lava as it makes it's way down, yet no black smoke, where does it go?

Does anyone here have a link to an illustration of what the rock formation/geology of the valley would look like without the glacier? Might help predict how the flows may travel through the glacier.

Marginata, Scotland the ashy black smoke is ash being vented, the white smoke is from lava coming into contact with snow or ice.

Marginata,

The ash is coming up when water cools magma coming from depth at the vent causing the vent to be briefly choked. Due to pressure buildup, there is an explosion hurling ash and incandescent fragments into the sky. The lava stream is flowing and reacts differently when it contacts water. If lava cools, there might be some minor explosions but not with the force of clogging the vent. Therefore steam rather than ash.

@Marginata the black is the active eruption site
steam plumes indicate lava flows and there in lava in the steam look at the black under them it is not shadows not with the sun on the left side of the image

#273 Good question, Marginata. Doesn't it have to do with more fluid lava flowing down and more viscuous at the crater?

Looks like the water is temporarily blocked by lava and ice atm. Bet this explains all the white steams right now. So there's another flood to be expected sooner or later from GÃgjökull. It's unlikely the water will find another way as it seem to have been flowing under GÃgjökull from the beginning of the eruption.

I have been working ten hour days for the past two weeks so have not spent much time here. I have Sunday off and am glad to see the skies clear and a all the cameras working with great views. I may not get a good nights sleep tonight.
Doug

Might we see a cave in to the immediate SSW of the lowermost steam plume/vent on the glacier - I've been watching and there are changes to the texture of the snow there...

@Doug Merson,

I hear ya. It's a gorgeous view today - we've been waiting for this for days now.

At least it's the weekend and a bit of late night viewing will be OK...

Must go to sleep now. Enjoy the show for me!

Vodaphone closeup of the base shows water flow increasing. You can actually see it spreading.

It's amazing to see the vigorous steaming and how little water exists the mouth of the GÃgjökull glacier. Looks like the lava managed to plug up the water channel.

My guess, it's only a matter of time until the water flow overcomes the plug and rushes out with force. I hope it won't be too bad and damage anything...

Ohh, I think my area to the sw of lowest steam plume is going next!

New steam vent forming much further down (possibly two) and meltwater now increasing at base. Along with the new extension of the lowest steam vent this could mean things are really heating up now (pun intended).

Steam beginning to vent from 2 new spots it appears.

Definitely two steam plumes in places lower on the glacier.

@Helen,

Yup, I see them too. Two new steam vents, although somewhere around there we've seen steam coming out on and off before. If that big chunk of ice falls it'll make quite a 'splash'.

The light on the Voda cam now is such that you can make out how the area has slumped just above the new, small vent ... I've wondered for a few days if that particular area would slip as it looks fractured around the edges of that lump of ice

Every once in a while you can see a puff of steam coming out of the left opening at the bottom of the glacier. Looks like the warm water is making its way towards the bottom already. She's on a roll today...

Hot water reached the top of the 'alluvial' fan. You can see it steaming.

All the while the right exit still seems to spout cold (i.e. not steaming water).

Very nice view indeed.

T r e m o r p l o t s are back

Wow

http://i41.tinypic.com/14ujlts.png

I think you guys on the left side of the pond are sure going to lack in sleep tonight. Very good visibility and the things are getting interesting. A jökulhlaup might be next in the program.

Only 7pm here so I'm well placed to stare at the screen for a good few hours yet :)

I learned something today, thanks Kultsi, I now know what a jökulhlaup is and it's definition is exactly what I've been expecting :)

@Kultsi,

Indeed, it's time for me to turn in, even if I may miss a bit of a spectacle. I hope to find a good description here, once I return....

Tremor plots have returned.

Tremor readings are now as high as during the second explosive eruptive event (the second high and short spike you see on tremor plots). I find it amazing that they kept rising in the short period of time I was sleeping, they now reached the highest *sustained* levels ever.

Steam and ash plumes also look bigger and bigger as time passes. I can't help but feel that something big will happen soon.

On the Vodophone cam it looks like there are some cracks developing around the lower edge of the tongue of the glacier, I wondered if the water will break through there this time instead of in the large crack which seems to be blocked at the moment.

Helen, why is it that your timezone and the context remind me of my visit in Rotorua? ;)

@Kultsi - that's because I am in New Zealand :) although I am on the South Island, by the Alps :) a long way from the smell of Rotorua ;0)

@Alison - I think you're right, I think if we're going to see a glacial burst that looks like the ideal weak spot. That area seems to have been slumping recently, too.

What is happening on the mountainside showing red to the right of the steam? Is it lava or a trick of the camera?

Light play on the camera

Vodafone cam 08.35 GMT - Notice the tiny steam plume rising on its own way to the left, at a guess 1½-2 km from the main activity?

@ Henrik, yes, I noticed that a while ago but thought it was too far away from the action to be relevant. Do you think that we will see things going off in the other direction?

Nothing volcanic about it and others visible in the Hvolsvelli cam. They are meterological phenomena.

#304 Yes. Now, that's what a Finnish 'haiku' is like. A bomb from the main eruption? I don't see any way of melt water running that way.

An update from the icelandic met office has been posted here:
http://www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption

#304 Could that wisp be condensation from the steam plume? There is that stone sticking up, and it could be enough to cause the saturated vapor to steam up.

I think you may be right, Kultsi! Since you're a Finn (and I'm a Swede), I'm sure we've seen similar things "up North, Lappland-way"? Clouds coming into existance over ridges and larger rocks where it looks as if the ridge or rock itself is steaming?

Who is the guy on the phone @ Ãórólfsfelli? He waved at us!

Fantastic display this morning anyway.

Wow, Eyjafjallajokull is giving us a fabulous show this morning! Really quite spectacular to see two such distinct plumes!

I have a question about the tremor. So, if I'm understanding the explanations I've read here before, the tremor plots are a sign of magma moving about at depth. They've been steadily rising over the last several weeks, and now they're higher than they were just before the main phreatomagmatic eruption.

Is the tremor *just* movement of magma at depth? Is it affected by the strombolian activity? How is it interpreted by the experts in the house? What activities do the different frequencies correspond to?

Thanks in advance for any additional information!

Amazing view today - nature is the biggest!
I´m also curious about the tremor quest @312

Clouds! Hope they'll be gone!

should not have talked about clouds forming out of the blue - they did. Now Lady Eyja has veiled herself and is prolly sticking out her tongue at us and going, "na, na, na, nah, na"... Anyway, I, too, think the questions @312 were good.

I was hoping to see the lava flow reaching that massive boulder of ice hanging over Gig's throat.

2 plumes are very cool. The white area I am pretty sure is the lava flow melting the glacier as it pushes to the valley and the dark plume is the eruption feeding the flow.
The dark plume is quite strong so I would imagine there is a chance the flow will eat through the entire glacier and break out into the valley floor.

@312: tremor readings on the Vedur.is website capture not only proper tremor caused by magma movement, but also any other type of activity or otherwise noise that produces seismic waves. So anything, like for example water or debris flow, floodings, weather noise (at the moment minimal though), explosive events, etc., adds up.

I think that most of the tremor recorded at the moment is due to volcanic tremor, though. It might not involve more magma than before, but instead less magma, possibly less viscous than before, forced through smaller or obstructed conduits. A combination of several factors could make tremors stronger even if the amount of magma involved might be less than before.

Looking at the Ãórólfsfelli camera, there is a small puff of steam occasionally visible straight up from the cleft at the base of the cliff -it's a little ahead of the main steam coming from the trench. Getting harder to see it as the shot darkens with increasing cloud cover, though.

Waiting for lava made me think of this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_5QZDpY1Y

There are actually 2 plumes, erratic to say the least, below the main steam plumes. The lowest of the two you can see at the seam between the 2 Voda cam images in the close up view - it's a growing dark area with steam emerging. It also looks (from the close up Voda image slightly SE of the dark area) like water has flowed under snow and emerged again ...

#318 I guess lava is less viscous. Can't wait to see it leaking from the gully.

@beedragon320 A great wakeup laugh, that's hilarious in this context...certainly looks different from yesterday up there!

Muddy water flowing beneath!

I just came across a page that has all the gps charts, tremor charts, earthquake charts, etc. on one page. I'm sure this has already been posted, but for the slower among us (me definitely included), here you go:

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/

seems to me all the water must be going up in steam...

@birdseye I'm inclined to agree with you. It looks like there should be a lot more water coming out of the chute for the amount of activity.

The lava flow looks like a kettle (well, maybe 20 million kettles) boiling itself dry.

@Renato324 now it's coming a bit

I see it otherwise:
Crater on the top - lava producing ash from strombolian eruption
Second level - lava flow (more basaltic) clogged in a pond producing huge amounts of steam
Third level (below) - melt hot water forcing it's way through ice. More steam, slower leak. Water gets cool, advance is slow (but thorough, for it's coming down slowly).

On April 20th our table on the terrace became dirty after a rainshower. These were the days when we had the colorful sunsets due to the airborne ash. I believe the dirt on the table (which had been cleaned the day before) might be volcanic ash. I used a clean fabric to clean the table and let the fabric dry. Today I scraped some of the dirt off the fabric and looked at it using a microscope:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_CeTKUI7gs3E/S91y7By55mI/AAAAAAAAQ5o/bA1yNzxSBb0/s…

What do you think is this how the volcanic ash is supposed to look like? The magnification used was 56x

thx,

Philipp

BTW, the ash (?) pictured above was collected near Bregenz in the westernmost part of Austria.

new thread started - yesterday 2-yr anniversary for this blog...

#33 Philipp, I'm no mineralogist. But yes, that could be ash. And if I'm not mistaken, of two different types, the lighter, more silicic. And the darher, more basaltic. But maybe we should have a better resolution to be sure.

steam and a little water 'blurt' at the bottom...

Looks like it's collapsing at the end of the trench......

Today's timelapse video should be extremely interesting to watch. Whoever was in charge of them: please make both close-up and wide view versions!

By the way, I wanted to add that in the last 15-20 minutes it looks like water flow flowing in the lake visible in Vodafone and Thoroslfelli webcams is increasing visibly.

Sorry for writing another post, but if you pay attention on Vodafone cam there are two cars visible in the zoomed view. They help putting the whole thing into scale!

http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…

They are probably Jeeps or similar off roader, which means they are no less big than about 4 meters.

Hi
I have been watching the web cams and this blog for a couple of weeks now the information on it is brilliant.
Alot of steam now coming out how long do you think before the lava becomes visible?

#320: And then there'll be a PLOP! and a full plate.

Given the progress of the steam plumes since this time yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised to see thick steam on the zoomed-in Voda cam on Tuesday.

Now, why do I wanna take a BATH?

Good morning everyone. I envy those of you who get to see the mountain before I do. :-)

I have been looking at the cam and it looks to me like a lot of mush is at the bottom where the mud and slush is. It sure looks different than it did last night and I was wondering if a lot of ice came down with water. At least that is what it looks like to me. Did that happen?

I wish the clouds would get to gettin' and git out of here! Oh well, at least I can see something.

According to news reports today there has been a sharp increase in harmonic tremors coming from the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. At the moment scientists are not sure what is going on.

The news in Icelandic.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/05/02/gosvirkni_aukist_toluve…

@341 Jón: Translation, please? Also, what does this mean? Could there be another explosion greater than the last one coming soon?

Comparing my Hvolsvelli screens, it's obvious that today's active vent is the same as on the 21st of April, but a different one from April 26th and 27th (which were more to the north).

Just checking in to say how much I'm enjoying this web page. I was on holiday with my family in Iceland last year. We did the Golden Circle, I ran the Reykjavik marathon, and then hired a car driving to the iceberg lagoon, well to the east of the eruption and spending two nights in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. My home is North London UK.

As a child I always dreamed of going to Iceland, and when its currency weakened due to the bsnking crisis I seized the opportunity. The country didn't disappoint.

Prior to going I was a regular on the Iceland Met Office website, and I still regularly check the tremors, watching the earthquake clusters, prior to the current volcanic eruption.

The webcam views are truly wonderful, but the comments from the scientists and locals on here, are superb. I wish I had something to offer the threads in terms of science but I'm an accountant, so I'll now go back to lurking once more.

Keep up the good work

Had to go out...on return,double phooey - vodacam not loading, Thorolfsfelli not as sharp.

Just checking in to say how much I'm enjoying this web page. I was on holiday with my family in Iceland last year. We did the Golden Circle, I ran the Reykjavik marathon, and then hired a car driving to the iceberg lagoon, well to the east of the eruption and spending two nights in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. My home is North London UK.

As a child I always dreamed of going to Iceland, and when its currency weakened due to the bsnking crisis I seized the opportunity. The country didn't disappoint.

Prior to going I was a regular on the Iceland Met Office website, and I still regularly check the tremors, watching the earthquake clusters, prior to the current volcanic eruption.

The webcam views are truly wonderful, but the comments from the scientists and locals on here, are superb. I wish I had something to offer the threads in terms of science but I'm an accountant, so I'll now go back to lurking once more.

Keep up the good work

@342: Google translation here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layou…

@StarBP, This increase in harmonic tremors means that the eruption is possibly more powerful now then it was few days ago. But it might also be sign of more lava flowing from the crater. There is also a question about flood water. But I do not know at the moment.

Is just me or have anyone else seen the smoke from the black area above the cliff? To the left?

Remember several days ago now I mentioned a dark blob on a chunk of ice? Well lo and behold! It is now on the left side of the ice in the middle of the trench. I guess it must be a rock that is sliding across that ice and eventually will fall.

Since I don't have to do anything today, I will be watching more, I hope.

@Jon Frinmann. Just wanted to ask you jon whats your personal feelings as regards the harmonic increase, do you think its something to worry about.

hmm-definite occasional steam from round hole to left of top of exit, also all along that edge of glacier??

Google translation of the link in post 341
Icelandic Meteorological Office measurements indicate that volcanic activity has increased somewhat in recent hours. This got confirmed in service which is more closely monitored function. It is uncertain, however, the significance increased activity may have.

One explanation for the increased activity may be that the lava is placed into the slope and the location is not available. If it comes down from the lava faster and faster out, but the functionality is basically tracking the movement of magma underground. These are only getgátur.

Icelandic Meteorological Office measurements show that turmoil has increased considerably. Image / vedur.is
On Vodafone webcam shows white steam Mocha GÃgjökul shut down. Top Mac gap indicates the status of lava and they lower rise of melting hot water.

The memorandum of Earth Science Institute University of Iceland and the Icelandic Meteorological Office from last night's match klepragÃgs to continue and does not seem to reduce the power of the eruption. Craters is 200 meters in diameter and approaches the glacier surface. Lava slowly slipping from the crater and is the best energy to melt ice.

Brief new post for today:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/a_brief_update_on_activity.php

Ok. Let's all go to the new thread. I think we got the hint from Erik. :-)

What are your thoughts on, if Katla then Hekla were to BLOW?! Are these volcanoes always so vicious, or do they occasionally blow, more mildly? If these do blow and they are severe, do the people have a strategy for evacuating Iceland? Will they come here and to Europe? Have they communicated this to any governments as a warning just in case a lot of them have to do so quickly? Is Haiti somehow connected to all of this through the undersea plates? I read that right after the recent Haiti earthquake, Yellowstone starting swarming again with (small 3 point) quakes again - co incidentally? I know our planet is much more connected in smaller to bigger ways that most people don't always notice; plus with all the distractions of everyday life... we tend not to see what may be obvious, many times over, I'm sure.

I now realize that Iceland is known as a LIP, and is not classified as a super volcano (megacaldera). Perhaps this information is incorrect, though, and really Iceland may be an active supercaldera hidden too much by erosion, ice and other such events. For sure, Iceland has experienced massive amounts of erosion through flooding caused by eruptions.

Taken from wikipedia (which was taken from some other source(s) - I'm sure):

Several mechanism's are proposed to explain the association of LIP's with extinction events. The eruption of basaltic LIP's onto the earth's surface releases large volumes of sulfate gas, which forms sulfuric acid in the atmosphere; this absorbs heat and causes substantial cooling (e.g., the Laki eruption in Iceland, 1783). Oceanic LIP's can reduce oxygen in seawater by either direct oxidation reactions with metals in hydrothermal fluids or by causing algal blooms that consume large amounts of oxygen (Kerr, 2005).

With the Gulf leak continuing, should we be concerned with our daily lives, let's say, a year from now, suddenly changing? Is there a connection between (some) eruptions and solar dynamical causes? Perhaps. We shall see.

Well, I have found out that the chain is somewhat like a quarter circle - though really it is right along the two plates where the Atlantic Ridge splits Iceland right through the middle.

This is significant in that this Atlantic Ridge (in of itself) could trigger such an event, seeing how it has all been caused by volcanism to begin with. In that particular spot though it is much more active, so who knows what that could eventually bring? Maybe the entire thing is lifting again as it once did in the distant past, when who knows what was roaming the Earth? Like a sleeping fiery sea serpent waking from beneath the cold North Atlantic sea; whereby the melting ice could be causing this tremendous strain.

Oh, well Erik and Diane, just don't put your heads in the sand, or snow, if something does blow. I think Iceland needs to come out with a good plan of action, if these things are to awaken.

Read the blogs. This may not happen now, but obviously this thing is starting to bob up and down. Eyjafjallajökull first erupted in March (although not significantly enough to make major headlines) then erupted again in April (more significantly) making major headlines. Now it is dropping again... but who knows for how long, and if it will rise up, yet again, even greater?

If there is a chain reactions, shouldn't the government of Iceland be preparing for a possible major evacuation? Will we not allow them to come (in large quantities) like what happened to the Haitians?

Then again, this thing could go down and lay dormant until 2012. Who knows?

Kudos for the great piece of writing. I am glad I have taken the time to read this.