The Eyjafjallajökull eruption quiets down


The small steam plume from Eyjafjallajökull on May 23, 2010, where explosive eruptive activity has ceased for now.

The big news over the weekend, at least volcanically, was that Eyjafjallajökull seems to have entered a period of relative quiet. The eruption has died down dramatically, with the last ash explosion occurring two days ago. Since then, the vent has still be producing a significant steam plume that reaches 3 km / 10,000 feet, but none of the ash-laden explosions that marked the earlier parts of the eruption have occurred (meaning the airspace over the North Atlantic and Europe is nearly ash-free). The Icelandic Met Office also mentions that the hottest temperature observed at the vent area is only ~100 degrees C and no active lava extrusion can be seen. Unfortunately, the IMO did decide to call the eruption "dormant", which is probably a poor choice of words considering its other usage in volcanology that implies the volcano has had a long period of inactivity, but the point is clear: the eruptive period that started over a month ago underneath the glacier at Eyjafjallajökull is over.

Now, to say that the eruption is "over" is much too premature. Volcanoes will enter periods of quiescence during eruptions all the time, where the eruption will stop until magma begins to rise into the vent area again. The seismicity has died down under the volcano, but it is still present, so this might imply that we could expect intermittent explosions. However, we could also just be seeing the end to the eruption - if the magma supply has ended, then that might be the whole show. Since the opening of the fissure at Fimmvörðuháls, there has been almost two months of eruptive activity, which is shorter than some people expected, but still a significant period of time considering how constant the eruption was. One group that will be happy to see the volcano go quiet will be the airlines, which now claim to have lost nearly $1.7 billion due to the airspace closures from the ash. However, for the rest of us, if this is the end (and I'd be surprised if it was), then we've all experienced an eruption of a generation in the way it captured the attention of the planet.

More like this

Dr Klemetti: Thanks for keeping the discussion going-- my SO is a webmaster for a small, but vital, agency and last night he was *amazed* at the number of hits you received since Friday morning. (And on a sloww eruption weekend, too). Congrats :-)

@lurking # 477 previous thread: really liked the long valley chart. I do find the moho layer charted onto the previous chart of interest ;-). Another straight up? hmmm

@zander #486 previous: I'm reading GEOLOGY by David Rothery from the Teach Yourself serieis, and find it very accessible. VOLCANOS is next. When I asked this question, Erik referred me to a previous post of his:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/08/my_favorite_volcano_books.php

When I googled the topic here, I also got:

magmacumlaude.blogspot.com/2010/02/essential-reading-for-volcanologists.html

Enjoy your next few years ;-)

I tried to make this post earlier but maybe something went wrong (and I also made some corrections). After Eyjafjallajökull is quiet now, maybe we can now have a closer look at Turrialba (Costa Rica) (http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/vulcanologia/videoturri.html). The seismicity of this volcano is very nervous right now. I don´t think there will be a big eruption, but my question is: Why is there such a ongoing high seismicity? Is it caused by the strong fumarolic activity (we have reports of jet-steam-like-sounds, new fissures and of course this strange eruption of white material earlier this year). Is it comparable to the ongoing low seismicity (with fumaroles) of the Phlegraen Fields at Pozzuoli (maybe hot water interacting with hot rocks in the ground?). BTW: There is a great website about the Solfatara-crater: http://www.solfatara.it/vulcano/en/index.php (not only with a photo of Sophia Loren standing in that crater) but also with a great thermal picture of the crater in the gallery: http://www.solfatara.it/vulcano/en/gallery.php And there is also a very interesting BBC-interview with President Ing. Giacomo Di Salvo http://www.solfatara.it/vulcano/en/video.php showing the Solfatara. Well in many German newspapers and websites and also in some documentary they say, that the Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe, but I think they forget to mention the Phlegraen Fields....

By Thomas Wipf (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Dr. Klemetti I don't want to leave this blog as this was my 1st volcano. I am addicted to the pics and discussion. Just because we have a break with EJ you will still keep this blog open won't you. DON'T MAKE ME LEAVE its scary out there!

Alas poor Eyjafjallajökull [...] Where be your gibes now? your
gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?

By Emanuel Landeholm (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Dr David Rothery is the course leader for a short course that I have just taken - Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis. I've been studying through distance learning with the Open University.

We used his book from the teach yourself series as one of the textbooks. I found it very informative. I believe that there is a new edition coming out soon, although I don't know when.

By Emma, Lancashire UK (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

I'm another one who hopes this blog will stay open! Been a longtime lurker, who's read all the comments and discussions and just been enthralled by what I've learned.

EJ was my first Volcano too, and I can't wait to see what's next on the list!

By Vancouverite (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Now that the eruption is (temporarily) over and it is safe to fly over the mountain, I hope we will soon get a set of near-vertical photos of the glacier/crater landscape, and using the radar images, be able to map the changes over the time of the eruption.
BTW, will the ash cover of the glacier tend to conserve the underlying ice, or will the lower albedo make warming dominate?

By Birger Johansson (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Erik, from a retired professor: congratulations on creating and maintaining a blog that is immediate, intelligent, investigative, civil, and educational, with frequent posts. Here's to many more years; hope you can manage your time.

Your university should take note; you should "get credit" for teaching and research -- and for developing a great recruiting tool. And your commenters, from the self-educated "amateurs" to the professionals, also deserve awards; their knowledge and links have enhanced Eruptions' excellence.

Few bloggers have all the skills, many have some of the most valuable. IMHO, you have managed to put them all together. Many thanks for an essential stopover while I savor delicious early morning coffee.

By pyromancerr76 (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

I too was a volcano virgin :) Eyja caught my interest simply because she was so accessible via the webcams which I guess was the same for alot of people.

She has sparked an interest in me that I didn't realise was there and thanks to all the great bloggers here I have learn't so much. So I'm here to stay.. Great blog and great friends, what more can a gal want.. :)

Good morning fellow bloggers/blogerretes!

I have followed the "E" eruption here and I have enjoyed it. Hopefully we can all still hang out, whether "E" starts to erupt again or whether another volcano gives us the same enjoyment.

I haven't written off "E" as of yet. Although "E" is throwing up an occasional steam/ash puff right now, I would not quite write off this eruption as of yet :O)!

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Err... still a few quakes that angle off towards Katla. Are these part of the piping in that region? If so, is it magma draining back or something different?

http://i45.tinypic.com/35ivxtv.png

From the Iceland Met 1500 HRS update on "E":

Eruption in Eyjafjallajökull
Status Report: 14:00 GMT, 24 May 2010
Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences, University
of Iceland
Compiled by: Sigþrúður Ãrmannsdóttir, Ãorsteinn Jónsson and Björn Sævar Einarsson.
Based on: IMO seismic monitoring; IES-IMO GPS monitoring; IMO hydrological data;
web cameras, ATDnet â UK Met. Offices lightning detection system, Satellite
images and web-based ash reports from the public.
Eruption plume:
Height (a.s.l.): According to a webcamera, the plume is estimated at 2 km/6600ft. A
light northerly wind.
Heading: South.
Colour: White, steam.
Tephra fallout: No reports of ashfall.
Lightning: No lightning strikes have been detected.
Noises: No reports.
Meltwater: Low discharge from GÃgjökull.
Conditions at eruption site: Similar as yesterday, estimated through a webcamera.
Seismic tremor: Volcanic tremor is still decreasing and is approaching the level it had
before the eruption.
Earthquakes: Earthquake activity has decreased since yesterday. One earthquake has
been recorded since midnight.
GPS deformation:Horizontal displacements toward the centre of Eyjafjallajökull volcano
and subsidence.
Overall assessment: The eruption seems to be dormant. There is still a considerable
amount of steam coming from the crater, but no ash can be seen in it.
The tremor is still higher than before the onset of the eruption,
especially in the frequency band 1-2 Hz

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Icelandic Summer,
Will it really be ash free?
Time to watch, and wait.

By Doug McL. (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

"Let the Analysis Begin!"

Someone wanted to know (when Eyjafjallajokull was emitting a pristine, white, steam-plume side by side with a dirty, black ash plume) where all the water needed to create the white steam-plume was still coming from. Meltwater was the most likely explanation.

I also wonder whether an undeground water source (subterranean river)is/was also the feeder?

A relatively rare phenomenon can be witnessed on the greek island of Kefalonia, where sea water rushes in on one side of the island only to re-appear, and flow back out to sea on the other through a series of underground channels.

Click here for info:http://www.kefapps.com/Phenomena2.htm

The American and Eurasian Plate Boundary makes a strange, upside down, "Y" under Iceland with part of the "Y" ending abruptly in this area. Could sea-water be entering the conduit somehow and therefore be part of the cause of the explosivity and copius amounts of steam which have been a feature of this eruption?

I have read that one day (thousands of years from now?) Iceland will split into two islands as "spreading" will eventually cause seawater to flood along the plate-boundary.

I think Erik will keep this blog going so don't worry.
I have followed the Yellowstone swarms,Redoubt, Mayon and other events here. Each one has been entertaining and educational at the same time.

Thank you Erik and it ain't over.

By Dasnowskier (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@La Kat - At Eyjafjallajökull you don't need to go far for the water: it surrounds all the vents in form of ice, about 70 meters thick, I've heard. When that ice melts, it does provide ample water for the explosions. Also, the stuff coming up contains gasses at very high pressure, which are explosive released when emerging from the vent.

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

P.S Alaska has been quiet for some time now. They rarely go this long without 1 volcano on at least a yellow.
I think I will give the folks at AVO a ring and see if their webicorders are hooked up (just kidding of course )

By Dasnowskier (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@ #1 Parclair , thanks i'll check them out.

I think that if i was 18 and not 36 this blog would get me seriously interested in pursuing a career in Geology or Vulcanology.

As for 'E', i think it would be a brave person to declare her "dormant" even with the more detailed information that the scientists monitoring the eruption will have at their disposal.

@ 16 Kultsi, Askola

Sorry, I didn't express that too well - I meant "in addition" to meltwater!!

I just thought it was an interesting idea after reading about this phenomenon in the greek islands.

Iceland's geology is fascinating and nothing would surprise me there. I think she has much to teach us on the topic.

@ La Kat, #14 - the white steam was generated when a lava flow exited the crater and flowed down the northern flank, mostly under the glacier. There are very similar images of similar eruptions at Llaima volcano in Chile in 2008-2009 and various eruptions of Villarrica, also in Chile, such as 1963-1964, 1971, and 1984-1985.

This blog will certainly continue, it was created long before the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and it will hopefully live on for a long time.

I don't know whether that information got somehow lost in all the excitation about the (at least temporary) cessation of activity at Eyjafjallajökull - but we've already had a new interesting volcanic event (though at a volcano without webcams).

Rinjani volcano on the Indonesian island of Lombok has apparently increased its activity this weekend, after producing a rather mild eruption since May 2009:
www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1313732&SM=1
and
news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/indonesian-volcano-spews-ash-and-lava-20100523-w424.html

You'll find a few photos of the 2009-present eruption at Flickr:
www.flickr.com/search/?q=rinjani&ss=1&s=rec

I'd like to thank Erik and all the rest who attempted (with greater success than you may know) to make the technical side of volcanology more understandable.

Of course it has also helped outsiders understand more about life in volcano zones. Ireland is said not to be that close to a volcano. However, Iceland is not so far away, in meteorological terms, as we have recently seen.

I also have learned how little is known about the inner functioning of this little blue planet.

So thanks again, Erik, and please keep up the good work.

@ Boris Behncke no. 20

Thanks for the explanation; it is super to have several experts here on-line who are willing to give up their time to guide us and all for free. (You don't often get free consultancy like this!)

I will now take a look at Rinjani (is that also known as Anak child of Krakatoa?). No need to answer that, I'll stop being lazy and look it up in a minute.

It's been unforgettable watching this eruption with all of you. I'm not going anywhere, though. Lots of magma where that came from, and lots of places for it to emerge.

So is anyone else having problems loading the Hvolsvelli cam with Firefox? It hangs the browser, at least on my Mac. (Thorolsfelli cam has been offline since yesterday.)

By Carla - Seattle (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@18 Zander-- I forgot to thank Diane NoCal for putting me onto the Teach Yourself series.

Heck, if I were 36 again, I'd pursue geology. My role model is a woman who got her PhD in anthropology in her late sixties, and then went onto a career in the subject. So go for it.

I'm younger than her, but I've never been all that great at chemistry (I''m too sloppy for the lab work, and I find memorizing formulae for compounds a tremendous bore, if I could be tested open book--*sigh*) So, I'll remain an amateur.

So, I say go for it. :-) (PS my SO changed careers totally at 40---)

So - here's a question for those who know more than I (must be jillions!) about Iceland's volcanoes and systems -
Would the 2010 Eyja eruption (and its possible continuing permutations) be considered a major strain-release mechanism for the SISZ and does that point to Grimsvõtn as the likely next Icelandic entrant to these pages at some point..? (If I'm way off base, don't laugh too loudly ;) )

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Carla (#23) - I haven't had problems with loading the cams, other than their being slow, and I use FF almost exclusively. However, FireFox is a resource hog (easily 400 MB+), and if you open just one tab/window too many, the whole browser system hangs and must be killed from task manager process list - and upon restart announces its embarrassment of being unable to open all windows/tabs.

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#23) I use Firefox 3.6.3 on my Windows Vista. I dislike Windows Vista, as I have had my computer, that is less than a year old crash 6 times. I had to use the Toshiba Restore each time.

The Hvolsvelli/PORO web-cam has a habit of just stopping on its own. I am not 100% sure what causes it. I reload the page then it's OK for a little while. I believe it has to do with the Flash drive memory??

Not much to see on the web-cams right now. I saw a steam plume on Hvolsvelli/PORO earlier, but the mid-level clouds keep moving in and blocks the view. The steam plume is up to 6,000 ft, per the Iceland Met Service.

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

In the historical record, did Katla erupt after Eyjafjallajokull settled down, or were they both fully active at the same time?

oooh,,if you click on @6 Stefan's name, there's a list of worldwide volcano webcams to roam around - a geography tour 'with benefits' : )

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Carla Seattle-- I've a mac, use safari. On my laptop, safari freezes up every now and then. When I do the cancel, for a brief moment, I get the movie screen. I imagine it's the flash and movie interaction that causes the brain to overheat-- On my desktop, no issues. So, I've gotten into the habit of writing anything I want to keep in textedit, and then copying it to whereever. A drag, but there it is--;-(

#27 The MÃla webcams indeed have a tendency to hang, the one at Thorolfsfell (Ãórólfsfelli) much more often than the one at Hvolsvöllur (Hvolsvelli). I think that has to do with the server resources MÃla has available as well as the JW flash player they are using. I suspect both cameras at Thorolfsfell use the same (slow) network link, so that might explain why it happens so much more often there.

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@TomG [28]

According to www.volcano.si.edu/world/region.cfm?rnum=17

The following dates apply to Eyjafjallajökull and Katla

Eyjafjallajökull - 550
Katla - 590

Six more Katla Eruptions

Eyjafjallajökull - 920
Katla - 920

Fifteen more Katla Eruptions

Eyjafjallajökull - 1612
Katla - 1612

Four more Katla Eruptions

Eyjafjallajökull - 1821
Katla - 1823

Four more Katla Eruptions

Eyjafjallajökull - 2010
Katla - TBD.

Good afternoon everyone! I've already posted my "adieu" on the previous thread, could go on thanking for much longer. I remember, in one of my first posts, writing about "the volcano which name I wouldn't dare pronounce aloud". Now my friends here in Brazil stare with wide open eyes when I speak it , trippingly on the tongue, in a perfect (let me boast myself this way) Icelandic accent:"Eyjafjallajökull"
So, I suggest Erik and Boris to keep a parallel thread for Eyja's "widowers", because I feel that way in respect of our Lady. OK,Boris, I'm ready with my Italian to face next Etna's eruption, but I'm still in too deep a mourning for Eyjaf to just jump in a snap of a finger to the next Indonesian volcano. I'm not ready yet. Need more time to get used to it. Too many trees, to much heat and humidity, no cams, and... no glaciers. I'll be back, but for now, once more: Grazie e a rivederci!

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@La Kat, #22, Rinjani is NOT identical with Krakatau (that's the Indonesian name for what is called Krakatoa in England), it's actually about 1250 kilometers (~775 miles) further to the east, on the island of Lombok (Krakatau lies between the islands of Sumatra and Java). But the caldera lake of Rinjani is named "Segara Anak", Anak means "child", and in the case of Anak Krakatau, this means "the child of Krakatau". The name "Anak" has been given sometimes to new volcanic features, like a new lava dome, Anak Ranakah, of a volcano on the island of Flores, in 1988-1989.

Rinjani is a rather tall volcano, 3726 m tall and with a caldera, within which, on the shore of the lake "Segara Anak" lies the active cone, Barujari. The current eruption is occurring from a vent on the upper north flank of Barujari and has delivered a lava flow into the lake; the lava flow stopped sometime in the fall of 2009 but may have resumed now.

One more comment: We have just had a 6,5M EQ in the state of Acre, Brazil! Since there were no damage or casualties, I confess I'm a little proud of my "Brazilian" quake. Too deep, though (almost 600 km - which gives way to further discussion on EQs happening on a supposedly non-brittle mantle) and also too far away from my home town. But gives me reason enough not to envy you guys in Iceland, US or Chile. May that give me some comfort. I've had "my volcano" (as I used to refer to E) and now "my earthquake". :)

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

The area is continuing to quiet down. Also, according to GPS data there is still a deflation going on. It is happening both on north-south and east-west. This deflation is happening slowly it seems. There is still a considerable amount of magma down there given that east-west is inflated about ~20mm at current time. But it appears that this magma isn't going anywhere at current time.

What happens next is a good question. Now we are in for a long wait and see time.

After the eruption ended on the 1st January 1823 there was a time gap of ~6 months before Katla started to erupt. If that is going to happen now I don't know. But it might be wise to keep history in mind when it comes to Katla. It is impossible to know if Katla is going to erupt or not. We are just going to wait and see what happens.

@Renato I Silveira: Trust us, you are lucky to live where you do-- We may make light of our situation, but it's do that or run around screaming in terror (8-O so, ;-D

Boris B... Erik has the phone number for one of the hotels that runs tours out to Anak K. each day...They are saying its quiet right now (relatively)...Kind of like walking on a 1000 pound bomb in a bomb bay rack. They will talk to you if you want a status. They are 62 kms to the E/NE of the island and on Carita Beach which was inundated in the past by tsunamis. Email him for the number and treat it as private stock wine. Email is also available and they can tell you which geologists are running out there each day. Its an hour ride in a fast boat.

Also, in Bali I have a doctor friend at the veterinary school that will talk to any vulcanologist and take pictures if able of the islands in question down at that end. They are all on both ends of Java kind of nervous about quakes/volcanoes so you can get the info you need along with Erik and process it out to us. I am a climate guy, not a vulcanologist. It would be great to get a satcam out onto A. Krakatau but we have to do some knee padding first. Locals are great at this because they know everyone.

If that one goes its going to be with a bang and definitely one I want to see from my living room. They on the other hand dont believe the government that "all is well" right now.

Bests.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Now things have calmed down why would there be a rising and falling of tremor activity at SNB with a period of 24 hours?

Traffic unlikely to peak at midnight, tides would be 12 hour periodicity.

Maybe temperature change during the day leading to melts that flow overnight then slow down into the next day??

@Renato - Although Sunday maybe was "bela final manhã de carnaval", the memories will live, the knowledge gained will stay and perhaps one day help us all better to understand and predict the ongoing volcanic processes.

I also hope that this group will stay in touch; it's been a joy and privilege to interact with you.

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

# 37 Thank for your words, @parclair, and for the many interesting links and posts you've been granting us all. Though we do have other issues going here that give us reason enough to run around screaming in terror. Unfortunately! :(

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#40 @Kultsi, Askola: Oh, yes, we WILL keep in touch. I just can't go on now for I have tears in my eyes. Take care, my friend!

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@ 24 parclair, Getting a Phd at sixty odd would inspire anybody !

On another note my sister has just booked a holiday to the Dominican Republic at a massive discount due to the lack of income for travel companies thanks to Eyjafjallajökull.

@Randolph Kruger, #38 - just to make this clear, Rinjani has nothing to do with Krakatau except that they're both in Indonesia :-D

Krakatau will probably not produce a catastrophic eruption for many centuries to go, it looks like it's pretty happy with reconstructing itself for the moment. There has possibly been a gigantic, caldera-forming eruption sometime during the 6th century AD, and then the similarly cataclysmic 1883 eruption, that means there were some 1300 years between them. I would not expect the next caldera-forming event before at least one thousand more years have passed.

I am pretty much convinced that the candidate for the next cataclysmic eruption (say, of St Helens or Pinatubo dimensions) is one that no one is thinking of in this moment.

The Katla cam is particularly romantic today--It makes me think of Heathcliff and Cathy.

@Kultsi, Robert, Parclair, et al. Thanks for your comments. I should have clarified (as I'm a professional computerer). The issue was different than the familiar FF slow memory leak. The Hvolsvelli page hung before drawing any of the content in the video divs, leaving the entire browser with an endlessly spinning cursor. Also occurred after a fresh reboot into a new session (i.e. not reloading previous tabs). And the Thorolsfelli cam showed an offline alert during that time, too. Reproduced both issues several times last night and this morning. Dunno, I see they are both working now so all is well.

By Carla - Seattle (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Good morning. Just caught up on the last thread and I will get to this later. I have a dental appt I need to get to. :-( LOL

Regutis, Frankill, and Birdseye, thanks for letting me know what that feature was that I was seeing. I figured it was part of the crater or an outcrop of rock.

Lurking, that is a great plot of the Long Valley quakes. It really gives a perspective of what is going on.

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Thanks Lurking.
I see there is nothing really cut and dried in the relationship between these 2 volcanoes.
Katla might go off next week, next year or might wait a while.
But ignore it at your peril!

In case somebody wants to contact me off-blog, my RL handle is Kullervo Nurmi; I'm on Facebook and I have a web site with contact info. Doing a Google on 'Kultsi' will give you about 123,000 hits, so that may not be useful. ;)

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Do we have a VEI for this Ejaf eruption.. so far?
Wiki has it at 4 but I take what that site says with a grain of salt.
High 3... low 4 maybe ???

By Dasnowskier (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#23 Carla, I use Firefox, and I've been getting a lot of "Server Not Found" messages with the Mila cams just since yesterday. I just re-click on the pertinent camera link, and then it usually comes up just fine.

@46 I had exactly the same experience with the same cams you did. (The black screen of scream, I thought). Oddly, the thermal portion came thru just fine.

@13 - Ah, I was wondering who would post a Haiku in honor of the slumbering down of Eyjafjallajökull. I would have thought that some would be inspired...

I agree with Renato that now is a good time to get familiar with the Etna resources, as Boris Benchke seems to think that "action" there is likely this year. He's as close to the "horse's mouth" as it can get, as far as I am concerned.

Too bad that the studies of the volcano he works with are underfunded. Considering the number of "fans" Eyaf got, we would think that somebody would start at "Friends of Etna" club, where you can contribute voluntarily to fund more research (and hopefully, webcam bandwith if an eruption would happen).

Of course, all of this with due respect to the hardships of the people having to suffer the consequences of an eruption. Although I have been following this current eruption with high interest since the beginning, I have had more than a few moments of empathy with the Icelanders.

With 10 webcams (so I heard), Etna might be a volcano worth getting to know while still calm, so that when things happen (maybe), it will be quite an experience to see all the changes as the eruption happen (which I hope for us fans will be big, but which I also hope for the italians that will be boringly small).

Thank you all for your interesting and civil posts and information, and thanks to Erik for having this very interesting blog.

By Summer, Canada (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Good afternoon/evening folks. "E" is putting out a little bit of steam off the Eyjafjallajökull frá Ãórólfsfelli web-cam at the moment. I know yjafjallajökull has quieted down, but I don't believe the eruption is quite over yet, I believe the "singing by all" is a wee-bit premature!!

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Summer, #53 - you're a sweetheart proposing the "Friends of Etna club", though earnestly, the idea is not really bad. Rumor has it that the Italian Department of Civil Defense will cut funding for the INGV by 35 per cent this year, which is definitely not a good idea.

During recent eruptions of Etna we've seen quite amazing changes to the shape of the volcano - during the years from 1998 to 2001, the Southeast Crater at the summit of Etna grew in an astounding manner, without doing any harm. So if we were to see similar changes next time, we'd appreciate it!

Etna is quiescent but restless, and this evening there is a conspicuous plume of gas trailing from the summit; I have taken a few photographs of this, which you can see at my Flickr pages: www.flickr.com/photos/etnaboris/ - along with scores of other photographs including the Aeolian Islands and my family :-D

#36 Jón So we still have some hope? I've been checking EQ's and tremours every two hours and I'm not going to stop! I reserved flights to Iceland twice last spring and both times the flight was cancelled because of E. Today I'm booked the flights again!! Will that do the trick? I would miss this blog a lot and you break my heart with those goodbyes.

Anyway - sorry for repeating what I wrote in previous thread but I want you all to know - Tak fyrÃr - for your patience in allowing amateurs like me to "hang around" and learn :)

By Essi, Finland (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Essi, Finland, Hard to say. It might restart, then it might not do that. Since this eruption appears to have been a lot bigger then the eruption in the year 1821 to 1823 it might also end differently and the evolution of the eruption might also have been different today then in last eruption. The current magma that remains inside Eyjafjallajökull (appears on GPS data) might be there to stay until next eruption in Eyjafjallajökull in the future. That is if nothing happens in Eyjafjallajökull in coming days, weeks or months.

My early estimates show that there is a good chance that this eruption is over. But next few weeks are going to tell us for sure what happens.

For my part, I am now preparing for a eruption in Katla. Even if there are no clues on when that might start. I am however expecting a sharp start of a eruption there. But when is a good question when it might start, and to be prepared should pay off for me.

Why the wake? There's still plenty of highly interesting observations and phenomena to investigate together! Take a look at the charts of all publicly available tremor stations intially linked by Dagmar - http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/allarsort.html

Can someone explain to me why the 0.5-1Hz band (red, magma moving beneath the surface iirc) of Grimsey (N), Adalbol (E), Vestmannaeyjar (S) and Nylenda (W) shows similar changes and amplitudes almost simultaneously?

Why not look at the blue tremor band of Vogar, close to Svartsengi Power Station or Reynihlid, close to Krafla Power Station. See the 24-hour period oscillation?

Stay my friends! Do not scatter to the four winds as we're having too much fun together!

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@56 Thank you Boris.

You're helping me to transfer my new addiction of volcanoes from Iceland down to Etna. The image of Etna looks beautiful.

By Emma, Lancashire UK (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Boris. Yes, your photos are lovely. Must run. Need to update my Etna links ;-)

Lurking: Regarding your chart, what is the scale on the right? Sea level? In Kilometers?

Nothing above a 2.0 in the swarm region at Long Valley for the past day (a 2.2 far to the south) but the last few quakes though small have been extremely shallow.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/special/Long_Va…

None of the publicly accessible webicorders seem to actually be located close to the swarm.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/helicorders/nca/

Zoom in, and you can see the closest one that's actually working is probably Mammoth Lakes, which is still pretty far away.

As I recall, wasn't there a lull in activity after the first fissure opened, but before the second. Perhaps the magma is moving to a new vent?

By Tim Clark (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#58 Jón Thank you very much for answering, U are my favourite volcanologist - wise and down to earth :) So when I come, I'll set my camp where there is a good view towards Katla ;)

I wish you all Icelanders a nice summer - as a scandinavian I know that summers are too short, so as much as I wish E or K would erupt, for your sake, I hope the ashfall would have a summer-holiday.

By Essi, Finland (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@all- sigh - my bookmarks bar is crying for mercy - Etna now being added - and I have just organized my PILES of papers downloaded/printed from Eyja - good thing I'm going away next week, I've got a lot of reading to take with me... so may good references (thank you especially Chris and Boris for help with techinical ones that are understandable for a non-volcanologist.)
I hope Mila keeps the cams running so that we can come looking; those who can't get there want to wave back at those who do....Frito, that means you, you'd better have a sign legible on FLIR (how would you do that, by the way?

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Sort of a ... less informed question.

Mafic magma that doesn't make it out of the piping... or that does and winds up littering the landscape. Does this material eventually turn into a more felsic composition over time due to the leaching of material by water/acids? Looking at the solubility of some of the chemicals listed in the reports tends to make me thing "yes." (this is asked out of curiosity)

Tim, you are right there was a lull, before that, and Eyjafjöll had also a tiny lull, before second batch of ash and lava, where everybody tought she had started to calm down,. this volcano have had rests during her eruptive periods,before too. so now we have just have to wait and see what she does this time. As i can see on Thorolfscam shes still emitting quite a lot of steam and small particles, but i guess thats because the tubes are still enormously hot, remeber It takes time to cool down an entire mountain, that have been warmed up to such great heat, that Lava emits to the rock.
and now i guess meltwater is pouring down the tube as there is still some glacial ice around the crater and openings.

but as pointed before, this could only be a lull, and she will be backbuilding,or the Lava just finds another opening to push trough,My bet is that in time Katla will talk to us about that matter,or some other Vulcano near the area.

btw can someone tell me this? I watched a tv programe about volcanoes on History channel, and it was mentioned Supervolcanoes,lots about Yellowstone caldera, and so on, but Iceland was Mentioned as one too??!, as there is an massive magma chamber(reservoir) under the entire island,that feeds the Volcanoes,and they(scientists) feared the in time, that this entire system could go of..

-I have never heard about this before and was a little intrigued about that, as I know that Iceland is a ridge volcano and the island is slitting in two ..

and second, as the Mid Atlantic ridge is spreading, where does the coninental plate move too, I mean the land mass has to move right, and does that mean that the plate is bending under Europe/scandinavia and toward Greenland/Canada/USA or just pushing the entire Eurasiaplate towards Alaska??

this is somewhat to big to understand as a whole since this is so big and slow moving that we cant always comprehend what the effects of it are,.

so someone that knows and understand this better, can someone explain would be great?

third I will just say Thank You to all that are here, Erik, Jon, you are superb..
and to the rest of you guys and gals,. YOU ROCK!!

Thor- Aalesund-Norway

( sigh!!,why dont we have living volcanoes on the mainland here(only old dead ones).

Thor; maybe you could ask Erik to put Beerenberg on the ballot for his next volcano profile. Norway's most active volcano. OK it's not on the mainland, but Jan Mayen Island is Norwegian territory, I believe

@Essi, Finland, I am not a Volcanologist. I am just a hobbyist at the moment. I however plan to get a degree in volcano and earthquakes studies. But that is few years off at the moment. Since I need to finish other stuff before I go there.

@Tim Clark, Before the eruption in the main crater of Eyjafjallajökull, the eruption on Fimmvörðuháls stopped completely. But that was then, and the eruption that just ended has changed the inner dynamics of Eyjafjallajökull I would think. Most important that being that GPS data now show that the movement is inwards in Eyjafjallajökull, not outwards as before. The GPS station THEY is now moving north, not south like before. There is still magma down there. But it might not be going anywhere any time soon. We just have to wait and see what is going to happen.

@thor[68]

It is generally believed that there is a "hot spot" or upwelling of the mantle material centered underneath Bardarbunga. By their nature mantle plumes are rather wide, so yes, this would tend to help drive all the activity that Iceland sees. (there is also supposed to be a smaller plume up near the northern extent of the Jan Mayen micro-continent (currently welded to the Eurasian plate).

As for the separation of the two plates, they separate at about 20 mm/yr. Where do they go? That shows up in events like the 2004 Sumatran quake or the Chilean quakes. Those are both subduction events where one plate drives down into the mantle. In the case of the Eurasian plate, look for places like Turkey, Greece, Iran, China for the other end of that equation, and the Cascadia subduction zone and the Aleutian Island chain for the other side of the North American plate.

Repeat of a link on the Bardarbunga event that shows evidence of an upper and lower magma chambers.

www.seismology.harvard.edu/projects/unusEQ/Iceland/index.html

Wait... so Iceland IS a giant volcano? I thought I was interpreting the tremor graphs wrong. The tremor graphs made me think there was a large volume of magma moving extremely slowly under the all of Iceland. Glad to know I'm not wrong on this (well, kinda).

Boris at 44. Understood that. But if it comes up you have locals that can get information if needed and forward it on.

I hope you are wrong about that volcano that isnt here right now. Remember we started out with an ejected chunk of ice on a melt pond with this one.

The floods have begun... Poland, Russia, China are all getting swacked but good by the rains.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Something warm is happening at the top of the mountain..... FLIR LOCKED ON AND AN APPARENT LARGER STEAM ERUPTION.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Well, no, it's not a contiguous volcano. It has a lot of volcanoes, yes. But it is nor more a single volcano than the east coast of the US. (a lot of old island arc volcanoes squashed up into the plate (accreted) and then eroded off into rolling hills).

The mantle plume helping drive it is under the crust. Even that Bardarbunga link states that they aren't sure of where that lower magma source is at, and it could very well be under the lithosphere. That points to a mantle plume.

(Note, the mantle plume theory is not fully accepted, but it's pretty good idea from what I've seen.)

So.. most linked papers I've read indicate that the Plume moved off of Greenland several million years ago and is slowly marching off to the SE (relative to Greenland).

The Hreppar and Tröllaskagi microplates which make up the brunt of Iceland are being jostled about by these immense and slow moving (to us) forces... occasionally getting a hole poke up through them making a volcano here and there.

Thanks :)) then I understand a bit more of this complexe nature that Volcanoes and how everything hangs together, that means
1. iceland is actually one big Volcano, but with Lots of vents,so big that it has created the island we know ans iceland now.

2. the continetal drift, driven by the midatlantic ridge, pushes, Eurasian plate towards, Alaska,and the pasific regions, and in that end, the pacific ocean plate moves towards us, correct?
are then some of the atlatntic ridge pusing Under scandinavia as an subduction zone? we have some faultlines that really are active(Moere faultline system,is considered as active as San Andreas fault)

3. Berenberg, is Yes. A Norwegian Volcano, and still very active, its still emitts heat and gasses, but are considered sleeping(dormant) at the moment.
shoul defnitly be added to Eriks,list of volcano profiles. we have some other volcanoes too on the mainland, but not active, but we can find the products of them,Olivine,and rombeporfyr,gabbro,gneiss,and other neat stuff)

4. we can also find some of the best traces of ash falls from katlas last eruptions, here, at least 20 cm of ash fell down here in this area,and we find the best traces near by my home(vedde ash deposits)

5 Iceland is a supervolcano,StarBP,thats why you see that on your tremor graphs.

@StarBP, No, Iceland is cluster of volcanoes because of the hot spot and the location on the Atlantic ridge. Currently there are 35 known dormant volcanoes in Iceland that are known. There might be more unknown volcanoes in Iceland.

ok, jon , ok so Iceland is no supervolcano.

Is the Hotspot under Iceland, a moving one or is it just lying there still, because of the ridge formation and the crust is opened now and then?.

Or is it moving from Iceland so the system goes cold there evetually and forms new islands anywhere else in the atlantic?
And what would happen if a hot spot moved or occured back under Norway as it did under oslo??

there was a big volcanic system down there, and same was just a few km away from where i live..?

I'm betting that the aviation industry suddenly loses interest in paying to develop instruments to detect volcanic ash in flight. It seems many people would rather spend money to invent numbers and pretend there is no problem than to actually address the problem. While Europe talks about 2 to 4 milligrams ash per cubic meter as "safe", US authorities are conspicuously silent on the matter.

By MadScientist (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Thor, I'm not sure about the hot spot under Iceland, but I understood that other hot spots, like the one under Hawai, do not move; rather it's the plate that moves above the hot spot.

#74) Yes, "E" is gently steaming this evening. I am not sure how high the steam plume is, but I don't think "E" is quite finished erupting!

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Thor, Iceland is divided by the Mid Atlantic Ridge into the Eruo/Asian plate and the North American plate. The North American plate moves west a few mm-cm/year and it is running into the Pacific plate. Enter the San Anderas fault. That is the boundary between the two plates. The Pacific plate moves north to north west as the American plate moves west. There is the posibiliy that there was a subduction zone at the San Andreas at one time. The San Andreas is a very powerful fault and it actually runs from Cape Mendocino in N CA south to the Gulf of Californina. It appears to run out at the eastern side of the Salton Sea and then seems to pick up again at the Imperial Fault Zone that goes into Mexico. I believe the Imperial Fault is actually part of the San Andreas and that system runs into the Gulf of CA.

Up at Cape Mendocino, it seems to end in one small part of the shore line and then the Mendocino Fault zone runs out into the Pacific for about 3000 miles. To me it is all one and the same fault system and just a bit north of where the fault runs out into the ocean you will run into the Cascadia fault zone and the Juan De Fuca plate. Things get complicated up there; as if they aren't ccmplicated enough already.

I hope this explains a bit of the systems we have here in CA. S CA is riddles with fault systems and now they are calling the Banning fault the western part of the San Andreas fault zone. The Garlock fault and the Big Pine fault were probably one fault at one time because they are left lateral and both intersect the San Andreas about 25 miles apart. Where the Garlock intersects the SA fault it is so chewed up they call it the Devil's Punchbowl.

I suppose that is more than what you really wanted to read, but I just thought I would give you a bit of the geology of CA. The Mid Atlantic Ridge definitely affects CA.

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Re 24h cycle on tremors: Best guess is the solar cycle of glacial rivers.

#27: Not Flash drives, but Flash graphics. REPEAT { Say "Flash drives good, Flash graphics bad!" } UNTIL Someone fwaps you with 'Animal Farm'.

What I find curious is to see a rise-and-fall west of Vatnajökull, but a rise-and-rise north of the glacier.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Anyone remember the discussion about the hot "UFO" that was visible in the FLIR image?

Well it is back and this time it is also visible in the Ãórólfsfell visible webcam. It is a bit out of focus, but given the size of the apparent image I'd say we are looking at the moon.

Surprising, that it gives such a strong signal in the FLIR image (it's the brightest spot again).

By Holger, N California (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#84: Yeah. I saw it earlier tonight. Seems that for once I got something right. Go me!

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Diane N CA [82]

Yah... there is some conjecture about which fault in the San Gorgonio Pass is the real San Andreas. Or, more accurately, which one is best connected to it.

www.data.scec.org/fault_index/sanandre.html

www.data.scec.org/fault_index/banning.html

One idea that I ran across a few months ago, is that the Lithospheric Drip at Fresno (and likely, the brunt of the central valley) is the result of the cessation of subduction (and detachment of the the main part of the Farallon Plate) along the San Andreas. As the non subducted fragment rebounded and formed the structure as we see it, turbidity in the athenosphere sheered the roots of the Sierra Nevada (and related) volcanoes/mountains and that is the source of the drip. At the Juan de Fuca (and the Explorer/Gordo) microplates... the leftovers of the Farallon, the subduction continues along the Cascadia SZ. (probably the same for the Cocos down south) What I find REALLY interesting is the westward bend in faulting the LA area... very similar to the bend up near the Mendocino triple junction. Was this an area where a previous Farallon shard was set up similar to the Juan de Fuca plate group? I have yet to read anything stating that, but there is an oceanic transverse ridge that terminates at LA similar to the one that turns into the Mendocino fault up north.

At least, that's the way I interpreted it.

Lurking: boy do I need to read more about CA geology! :-) I had no idea there was anything like the Fresno drip. What is it and does it lead to any magma chambers?

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#84 and #85) There is a steady steam plume coming out of the main vent of our "E" volcano. Not like yesterday, when if puffed like "E" was smoking a cigar :O)! It may be a few thousand feet or so above the summit. Currently on the POR/FLIR web-cam, it's shrouded in fog or light mist.

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Reynir #85

Good call! I knew somebody had mentioned the moon, but forgot who it was.

Last time I even checked the websites, if a new supernova had appeared in the sky. Now that would have been a spectacular new addition to our images. But it was only the good ol' moon....

By Holger, N California (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Diane N CA [86]

gcc.asu.edu/jbroth/docs/West_2009_Earthscope.pdf

Goes into a bit about it. Basically, no, no magma chamber associated with the drip, but the Mono Craters, Long Valley,and the several volcanic fields are likely the result of the mantle getting mixed around from it's formation.

Recently they (meaning researchers in general) came to the conclusion that the mantle can flow much faster than they thought in a subduction setting. "20 to 30 times faster than the plates themselves" With the flow being some what akin to the eddies around a boat paddle. Following that logic, the drip formation from the rebound probably stirred up an already energetic system.

news.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-super-fast-flow-of-the-earths-mantle-a239133

#89: Well, I mentioned that last night as the most likely possibility as seen from my house door.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Jon F. - Any info on how the eruption went for Katla way back when... Was it a slow creep up or did it just jump us like Eyjaf?

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@... err... I guess me.

I found the original article that discussed the cessation of subduction and the formation of the drip and San Andreas fault.

The paper is behind a pay-wall, but the graphics and a short summary are available.

The grahic:

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v431/n7004/fig_tab/nature02847_F4.html#fi…

From: "Active foundering of a continental arc root beneath the southern Sierra Nevada in California"

Nature 431, 41-46 (2 September 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature02847; Received 16 February 2004; Accepted 12 July 2004

"Seismic data provide images of crustâmantle interactions during ongoing removal of the dense batholithic root beneath the southern Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The removal appears to have initiated between 10 and 3âMyr ago with a RayleighâTaylor-type instability, but with a pronounced asymmetric flow into a mantle downwelling (drip) beneath the adjacent Great Valley."

By: George Zandt1, Hersh Gilbert1, Thomas J. Owens, Mihai Ducea1, Jason Saleeby & Craig H. Jones

And the article link:

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v431/n7004/full/nature02847.html

@Lurking, thanks for the info. I will have to get into that and see what they are talking about. I am wondering if they agree with John McPhee who wrote "Assembling California." I should get hold of a copy of that and read it again. I just might understand it a bit better. He is the one that believed the Gulf of CA would eventually merge with the Salton Sea again and then head up into NV. I have mentioned it before and I asked a seizmologist about it and he told me that it is true, but it will take millions of years for that to happen.

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Diane N CA [95]

JUST FOR KICKS...

I took the Long Valley related quakes and projected them as close to the orientation presented in one of the graphics from that paper, then merged the two in order to get a relationship with the APPROXIMATE crust layout, as presented in the paper. I have also annotated the area where the quakes are located.

This cross section is about 54 km SW of the Long Valley Caldera.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2iw3qrs&s=6

BTW, I found a non paywall version of that article.

cires.colorado.edu/people/jones.craig/SNEP/Zandt2004.pdf

Good evening! Just had a scary experience watching John Seach's video on Vanuatu. For those who have been watching lava bombs being spitted from Lady Eyjaf's angry womb, just take a look to see how those guys collect them still incandescent in metal pails. Just got the link on the other thread in this blog:
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/eruptions_in_indonesia_and_co…
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/-/watch/19084493

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@Jen [63]

I try to keep everything in km or some sort of metric. I think in miles, and feet, but most texts use metric, so who am I to buck the system.

The one issue that I have, is that I do know know if the quake depths are listed with regard to mean sea level or the overlying terrain. I sent a question about it to the en.vedur.is site but never got a replay. They were probably a bit busy with all that fire shooting up out of the hole.

Lurking, you certainly know how to use a computer! I wouldn't even attempt that if I had the software to do it. LOL Is the "hole" the drip?

Thanks.

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Yes... that's the one that they were talking about in the paper.

As for the computer... too bad my spell check isn't as good. Sometimes I come across as a raving idiot.

For those interested in the Long Valley Caldera area and the earthquake swarm, the following link may be of interest.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kml.php

This is a KML file of faults and folds in the western US that may have caused quakes of M>6. One of the faults forms a circle south of Mono Lake with the Mono Craters along the east side of it.

Doug

By Doug Merson (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@102, Lurking.

From an earthquake technical glossary,
http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/glossary.html

Depth: The depth where the earthquake begins to rupture. This depth may be relative to mean sea-level or the average elevation of the seismic stations which provided arrival-time data for the earthquake location. The choice of reference depth is dependent on the method used to locate the earthquake.

You were correct to inquire about the relative or actual measurement of event depth. The IMO earthquake faq (en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1225) doesn't specify units of depth measure, so I would guess their EQ event tables report depth as relative to ground surface.

@ Jón FrÃmann, Passerby

Thanks for the ref, that answers a few questions that had been nagging at me. I knew that phase measurement had a lot to do with it but I wasn't sure what aspects of the waveform were being used. While I've done quite a bit of field work on reading pulse waveforms, that had a lot to do with RF and not seismology. When I look at a seismo trace my eyes just gloss over.

The IMO quake data reference level ambiguity may make some of the graphs I have generated a bit inaccurate... but they were intended more for the layperson such as myself in order to get a better grasp on what and where they were happening. Thanks for the heads up on the predominate reference methods.

Lurking-- wow, the information and the charts (a la vous) are really wonderful. My brain is mush from reading so much geology today, but I've lots of questions/ideas from my quick skim.

I've often puzzled over how/why CA's got a slip/strike fault, but it's subduction on the Cascadia fault. The material you've provided will help me to understand!

Oh boy, lots of fun stuff to investigate! Thanks ;-D

By parclair, NoCal USA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

@ parclair, NoCal USA

Not a prob. That's what lead me to keep my eyes open for info about it.

Now... a hair brained though crossed my mind today...

The San Andreas formed after subduction stopped around 18-20 myr ago. This was likely due to the main part of the Farallon detaching, leaving behind what we now see in SoCal. The Juan de Fuca (and friends) were likely part of that original plate. A

About 17 myr ago, the Columbia Flood Basalts spewed forth due to what is thought to have been a mantle plume... we're talking upwards of 174,300 km³ over the time frame of the event. Radial fault patterns from this seem to support the plume head idea. At roughly the same time, the Snake River caldera eruptions began and started their slow march up the canyon, with around 9 separate caldera events (likely more, but I don't have the data) ending at the one we now call Yellowstone.

Due to the size of the Columbia formation... my pet theory is that as the Farralon detached, it ripped loose catastrophically and created some serious eddy currents in the athenosphere, generating (or contributing to) the plume that formed it. The remaining trail of magma billowing up to the surface is what drives the Yellowstome family of calderas.

Like I said, it's a pet theory... but I'm not a geologist so the idea could be totally off.

Dear sir,
I read this as soon as I got it and I am very much impressed by it also as it is very much helpful for me and very informative even useful in my project work at school. Volcanoes and tornadoes have always been my field of interest in which I also want to make career. As a scientist the study of natural calamities would prove fascinating as I want to work at NASA. Good way to stay updated sir!
By summing up, I just loved this article. The one I was looking for!

Lurking @108 Heh, I was going to ask a question about the relationship of the Yellowstone Plume to this parting of ways-- but like i said, brain is mush.
Re the eddying, I recently read the following post about the trinity alps area:

http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2010/02/other-california-flotsam-and-jet…

Another thing-- in your earlier post 94, there was a quote about " RayleighâTaylor-type instability" I quickly skimmed the wikis about the rtt and just had this intuition (prolly totally off the wall) that this may be somehow related to the periodicity of the magma-related seismicity that's been discussed in the earlier posts.

Oh man, gotta hit the sack. G;nite, we'll continue this discussion, I'm sure. :-)

By parclair, NoCal USA (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

#82 Diane, I'm not sure what the area is called where the San Andreas and Garlock Faults intersect in the Tehachapi Mountains, but it's not really near Devil's Punch Bowl--or at least the Punch Bowl I grew up visiting on the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains. :-)

Gah, its late....

@parclair

Thanks for jogging my memory. I first ran across that term in a book on Helioseismology. In it, RT referred to the mechanism that formsd the granules on the Suns surface. A Wiki snag says "is an instability of an interface between two fluids of different densities, which occurs when the lighter fluid is pushing the heavier fluid." So, since the seismo paper is referring to magma and not plasma, they are likely talking about a hotter less viscous magma pushing the denser material around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Taylor_instability

BTW, that book was "Sunquakes: probing the interior of the sun" by Jack B. Zirker - Johns Hopkins University Press (2003) and I found it to be fascinating. It reads well and is easily understood. No heavy math lifting required. More of a history of Helioseismology than any thing else.

@Holger #84: The moon should appear to be somewhere around 320K temperature, so it is much warmer than the background and most of the scene - it's actually much hotter but the atmosphere interferes with the moon's radiation. You can confirm it's the moon if you know the geometry (then you can use any number of programs to determine the position in the sky) or alternatively work out the angle subtended by the UFO.

By MadScientist (not verified) on 24 May 2010 #permalink

Good Morning all... JOn's helicorder is showing increased tremors and we have new EQ's one was 20 km down

Measurements don't say anything yet...!
This morning two Icelandic geophysicists said it would take a while, up to 10 days, before they knew whether the Eyjafjallajökull magma flow from deep below had stopped completely.
http://www.visir.is/article/2010549720345

@ 116Kris B ...and we're still checking in....

Came across a quote from the final segment of a long-running US TV series, "Lost" - applies here for the 'Eyja experience at Eruptions" :
"This is the place that you made together ...." It's a good place.

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Someone a while ago was commenting that there weren't any final Haiku. It's never 'over' in Iceland , tho' we may have to wait awhile for new developments, so,no Haiku, but just for fun, a brief history of what we have seen, starting with Fimmvörðuháls....

A pretty little fit.
Temper tantrum and indigestion, followed by
Overdone ashy makeup spreading all over everything, spoiling her dress and making life difficult for bystanders.
A few half-hearted attempts to pick up where she left off.
Small sighs.
Nap.

Your turn!

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

One or more Russian volcanoes is releasing a telltale SO2 signal in the Kamchatka/Kuriles that wasn't evident just a few days ago when I last checked. NASA volcano-SO2 website shows a large but diffuse SO2 mass over Alaska and northern Canada.

KVERT alerts, 4 Orange and one Yellow.

Is she still steaming on the web cam or is that just cloud.

Thanks

By claire uk (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Hi all, shes still steaming !

By Adrian,Dorset, UK (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

10 EQs over the past couple of hours and there seems more steam on the webcam than there was earlier today.

By alison, UK (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

It's a swarm, indeed. Mostly shallow, but still, a swarm, I should say...

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Hey! I would look at Ãórólfsfell cam. Maybe it's a light trick, but seems there's a little ash involved. What? She's just clearing her throat? How are tremors now?

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

If anyone still interested: The Applian stand-alone Flash Video player can indeed play the streams from Hvolsvöllur and Ãórólfsfell cameras. It needs a bit of browser assistance, though, to divine which server to use, plus some cut-and-paste to get the path to the player.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

#126 #127 Thanks, Reynir and Lurking. Precious information there.
Well, I must go now. Since there are no thermal anomalies at the rim, I think the ash, if there's any, is just residual stuff being pushed up by rising steam. I'll come back later to see the development.

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

I have loved visiting this site for information and sources.
My question for "the experts"...is there a possible correlation between vulcanic activity and solar activity? Due to the limited time period which mankind can study, the connection could easily be co-incidental, but some major historical eruptions seem to co-incide with deep solar minimums. The current solar cycle is bordering between "weak" and historically low. I have not come accross a theory which clearly explains a mechanism connecting solar activity and geologic activity on Earth, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If there is a process which connects the sun's magnetic activity with plate tectonic activity, this solar cycle may result in an extraordinary event.
http://www.unisci.com/stories/20022/0613022.htm
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003ESASP.535..393S

just in case nobody has posted the tremor plott for Lagu Hvolar southeast of Katla, the Tremors are slightly increasing.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/hvo.gif (red and green channels)

in correlation to the shallow earthquakes on eyjafjalla it may be a good sign, that there is a posibility, that the eruption isn't jet over, just on a break.

i would like the read what you fellow eyjafjalla-fans think of this :)

EQ 25-MAY-2010 10:09:0635.35 -35.93 mag 6.0 10.0 km NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

#130 The scale of amplitude keeps changing on the short-period plots; at the moment, a seemingly large change on them is actually quite tiny. Birdseye's suggestion is good, it puts things in perspective and the longer time base helps in judging what is really happening compared to what has happened already.

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Stefan I am thinking the same thing I have been thinking for the last 3 weeks....that this little drama isn't over, it may have several more acts and possibly even new actors;)

#135 That EQ now upgraded to Mag 6.3

what are the possibilities of the deflation at Eyjafjallajökull unloading the Katla system sort of like having a car parked on a garden hose then moving off it??

Ok Randall, spit out the cherries! What acts and which actors are you thinking of? ;)

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@ Randall

I guess that with other players you mean Katla.

even if there have been eruptions of Katla that followed Eyjafjalla, im still not so confident, that there is any kind of link betwen those two volcanos.

if eyjafjalla has a rate of one eruption in 200 years, an Katla an average of about 4 eruptions in 200 years. there is a posibility that those two erupt in a short timeframe, but that doesnt mean they are linked. but im just an amateur and all i do is guessing around. we do just not know enough about this two players.

for me i would like the idea that eyjafjalla isnt jet finished, but for the icelandic farmers a continuing eruption would be a big problem, if farmland is covered by a thick layer of ash.

ps. i would like it, if somebody could comment my english. it's not my native language and i'm not so confident if everything i write is gramaticaly correct. :)

How about a sweepstake for eBeers? I put my pint on a basaltic effusion, mostly Hawaiian with phreatomagmatic Surtseyan bursts (glacial meltwater) and lava flows to begin within four weeks. ;)

PS. Stefan, the main purpose of language is not the ability to spell correctly with perfect grammar. It is to make yourself understood and you succeed very well. Don't worry!

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Henrik first let me make one thing very clear....I would rather be wrong about what I think is going to happen. I hope I am wrong both for Iceland and because I have a girlfriend and 2 other friends in Europe right now and I want them home safe

Here is what I think....EJ is not finished. I think there is a lot bigger magma chamber under EJ and Katla. I think that the two volcanoes are very much connected. I am also beginning to think that the magma chamber under EJ might be somehow connected to more than just Katla.

@Alison #138 Thank you for the update. Can you give me a link to the source? I only have 1799 earth sciences websites bookmarked and I'd like to make it an even 1800 :)

Ok..back to catching up...

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Stefan you speak fine...better than me when I drift back into my redneck Alabamanese....I then to do it when I am angry;)

Henrik don't you already owe me a bottle of e-wine?:) Remember our bet with Gourdys back in March? Remember you guys thought it was finished then;)

@Stefan, I second Henrik's comment #143. I understood your post perfectly. :)

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Randall, why do you think I'm organising this eBeer sweepstake? You will accept a few kegs of eBeer in lieu of the eRed, won't you? ;)

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@Stefan, I agree with everyone else, you're doing fine. I understand everything you've been saying. And, as with others, if I don't understand your comment or question, I'll ask for clarification. PS DO NOT use my postings as examples of proper grammar. Mine isn't so hot. ;-)

@153 Thank you Alison.

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@Thor;@Jon;
Thanks for your comments.

By Tim Clark (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

hello all,:)

hows our lady doing today ?? Heard some rumors of small explotions and shallow Eq today,. so shes moving about again?

While doing some chores, I just watched the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen's Speech. Wow, your opening day of government is way more entertaining than the equivalent here in the US. :-)

If a second act to Eyjafjallajökul's "Das Rheingold" would turn out to be Hekla, Katla, Askja & Bardarbunga as "Die Walküre" over the next years, what do you propose for "Siegfrid" and the latter "Götterdämmerung" (to stay within the Wagnerian mythos)?

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Oops. While editing, I dropped your British opening day of.....

161 some governments have in them a notion of obligations to the people they work for, as much as they try to avoid it having a 5 or 600 year history is a advantage

here in the us it has degraded to a do what you can to enrich yourself, and screw any one you cant use to further that end

CAUTION! This blog is terribly addictive!
I have no time for lurking now, but if that's not ash sticking on Ãórólfsfell cam lens , what is it then?
Miss you guys!

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Goin' to the new thread. Catch y'all there.

By Diane N CA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

I think the Lady Eyja die-hards might stick around this thread a bit longer before we move on to other volcanoes. :)

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Henrik the Rhine maidens are crying out that the glory of the Gods is just an illusion....at the end of Das Rheingold. We still have 3 more dramas left to go.....(to stay within the Wagnerian mythos);)

Looking at Jon's helicoders it seems today there is more noise than the last days..

Bea, it certainly looks like something is happening even if it doesn't look like it's Eyjafjalla volcano to judge from the tremor (click on the little squares):

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

Take a look at the four stations that surround Hekla - Gygarholskot, Saurbaer, Haukadalur and Vatnsfell. Remarably similar over the past two days.

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Not just Hekla... it seems something is happening under all of Iceland (low-frequency tremor plots are all having small rises and falls). I have heard that all the volcanoes in Iceland are the result of a hotspot. Wouldn't that mean that they are related, or maybe even that they are all vents of a single system (such as Yellowstone, also a hotspot)? Could it possibly be that an ancient "burp" in the mantle below Iceland has made its way up to the crustal boundary, and Eyjafjallajokull just happens to be the first volcano to be affected?

Henrik....do I hear a storm raging.....yes I think I do....enter Siegmund;)

StarBP careful you are in danger of going to the dark side like me;)

I think E's creaks are due to the disipation of heat in the volcanic system just as a metal electric fire prangs with contraction as it cools. The contraction forcing remaining trapped gasses out of the system, hence the small explosions.

Could the tremor plots bee rising due to inferrence of the large quake on the ridge today? the 6.3?

OK Eyaf wins My Pliny vote so far ths year. Still waiting for best supporting actor.....

Happy Island með endanlega sæti à Eurovision

congratulations Iceland with your place in the finals on Eurovision song contest,.!!

Thanks to all for your comments in relation to my english :)

its most important for me to, that i get the point of which i am talking or thinking to you other folks, i know that my grammar isn't that good at all ;)

@StarBP

I understand that Iceland lies on a Hotspot, that has it's origin deep into the mantel. But i personaly don't think that every volcano in iceland is part of the same volcanic system. i would agree if we talk about the same seismic zone or the same area on the mid-atlantic-ridge. i do think that some of the icelandic volcanoes are related, such as the barbadunga and grimsvotn volcanoes, but not all of them.

my personal idea of icelands volcanism is, that there are "we could call them so" several hotspots of active volcanism in iceland, due to its position on the mid-atlantic ridge and the iceland-plume. so if there is some decent tectonic movement in one part of iceland, that could cause an eruption of one of the several icelandic volcanos. my logic tells me, that the erupting volcano must be close to the origin of this tectonic event.

after a guessed period of time, other parts of the rift get active, be it seismicaly or trough a volcanic eruption, which then could cause a nearby volcano to get active.

i make this conclusion because i think that the rift that crossed iceland doesn't spread on every part with the same rate. in my understanding the two tectonic plates that rift apart in iceland do not have the exacely same direction of rifting, only the general, or we could say, from distance, they get one direction. because of this uneven spreading we see sometimes large earthquakes.

so, i think i can't write everything i think, because i dont know all the words to describe what i mean, but i hope i was able to give you an idea of which might be happening, if we don't get to close into details.

so it's time to get sleeping. best whishes and have a nice day or evening.

@Henrik 61 24 hour periodicity in tremor. Maybe waterfalls draining glaciers: faster flow during insolation?
(eg does Krafla seismometer pick up Dettifoss?)

By Peter Cobbold (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@ 61, 177, Henrik Peter C. That's what I was wondering - spring is on its way in Iceland, things are warming up, there's consistently more water in Markarflót - must be more melt on glaciers and consequently more subglacial lubrication from meltwater - tho' it's not full summer yet. Any glaciologists out there?

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Hi, Stefan (post no. 142). Since I have nothing useful to contribute about volcanoes, I can at least try to answer your question about your use of English.

Your English is excellent, and far better than that of many native speakers. Your meaning is clear throughout; there is no ambiguity. If I could write in another language as expertly as you write in English I would consider my task of learning to be complete. You asked a straight question, though, and there were a few minor errors in your post. (I should add that I'm not very good at explaining why a particular usage is right or wrong, and that I'm no great authority).

"I guess that with other players you mean Katla". That should be "by other players", as in "What do you mean by that?", not "What do you mean with that?"

" ... im still not so confident". "I'm" is a short form of "I am", so you need the apostrophe to represent the missing letter. You don't need the comma after that clause as the sense is continuous; there is no need to break it up.

" ... an Katla an average of about 4 eruptions in 200 years". It would be better to say " ... and Katla has an average ... "

"possibility" has a double-'s'.

" ... all i do is guessing around". That should be "all I do is guess around". The present continuous tense (I was guessing ... I am guessing ... I will be guessing) is quite versatile, but it describes a specific action at a particular time in the past, present or future. Technically, I think that you are describing (with undue modesty!) a habit of yours, rather than a particular thought-process on a particular occasion. Therefore, "all I do is guess around" would be more correct. However, "all I'm doing is guessing around" would have been absolutely fine because the continuous "doing" would have matched the continuous "guessing".

" ... this two players". That should be "these two players" (observing the plural "players"). You use 'this' if the noun is singular ("this player").

" ... isnt jet finished". You need an apostrophe in "isn't", and 'yet' is the correct spelling.

Again, you don't need the comma after "a big problem", or after "i would like it". Those sentences run more smoothly without the commas.

" ... if somebody could comment my english". A comment needs to be about something, or to refer to something. A comment isn't an action that operates directly upon something (examples would be "praise my English", "criticise my English"). You just need an additional word in there. " ... comment upon my English" would probably be best.

" ... i'm not so confident if everything i write is gramaticaly correct". The word 'if' is conditional; for example, "If Katla erupts it will be bad news for the farmers". Your sentence should read "I'm not so confident that everything I write ... "

'Grammatically' is the correct spelling.

Stefan, you must know that your English is highly effective, and I now realise that some of your mistakes were simple typing errors. If I seem pedantic, it's because you obviously want to eliminate as many errors as possible. I wish I was as rigorous as you about learning other languages.

By Daniel Simmons (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@ Daniel

Thank you many times for this brief information about these different modes (i hope thats the right word for the different forms (past, present, future)). actually i know that i'm having some troubles with the use of the continuous-forms. but it's like speaking english, you need to speak as much as you could, otherwise you lose your shape. or ability to spell or write correctely.

so but for now, i would like to get back to volcanoes an all that stuff ;) actually that's far more interesting than my use of english. :) but consider your post and reflection about my english as very helpful for me, so thank you again.

@Henrik, Swe, You are just seeing background noise. Background noise is wind and waves from the ocean. Volcanic and earthquakes stand out from that in the tremor plots from IMO. They do that same thing on my plots.

Nova (US Public Broadcasting) is just now (East Coast) airing "The Mystery of the Mega Volcano"

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Indicators are positive for another potential jump in magma movement and are very positive for geothermal and tectonic unrest within the next 48 hours. SISZ is looking very active right now...uncomfortably so.

@Passerby, SISZ is always active. It is changes from day to day. But it means nothing in regards to volcanoes or earthquakes most of the time.

However volcanoes can push on SISZ it seems. Currently there might be clues to SISZ in relation to Hekla activity. But at the moment it is too early to tell anything or figure out if there might be eruption coming there. But it is going to explain it self sooner or later.

I offer up RAM
As a sacrificial lamb
To Ãórólfsfell cam

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@187 Princess Frito
As 'Bert & I" used to say, "That were a good'un!" Now I can 'fold' for the night..... ; }

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Good evening or good morning fellow Volcano enthusiasts :O).

On the PORO cam, there are a few very small streams of steam coming through the face of glacier.

The steam at the top center is the largest, but still barely visible.

By Robert Bordona… (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Desperately trying to catch up here after getting seriously behind...

@Randall: data recovery? We have something in common. We gotta do lunch. Have your people call my people.

@190 birdseye: Are you Ernie? ;)

@Reynir 246 and 249 and 251 and 254 from a thread-ago: Oh boy, where do I start?

246: Loved your expression "going Pacman on my RAM". Can I use that?

249: What is a "kukl"? I googled it and all I got was Bjork's band. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It just doesn't fit with anything I'm presently aware of. :)

251: re: that funny p- versus th- thing we were all confused about for weeks. Thank you for the explanation!

254: "Poodle rock band" (Europe video). Ok that's where I totally lost it lol.

@Renato #441 - your goodbye was "Oscar-worthy" and brought me to tears. Don't leave us! Ok, I see you haven't left us. PHEW!

OK I think I'm caught up now.

*Firmly entrenched on the dark side* :)

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@Randall - I fear them not, for I am a Princess. OK yeah, I'm a self-proclaimed one and all that (due to peer pressure), but still, I'm a freaking Princess.

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Ok thanks to Google I now know what a Sith Lord is ;) (fell asleep at the drive-in years ago when Star Wars was playing - sorry!)

MRK - what you're seeing ain't jiving with what's on the Ãórólfsfell cam

By Princess Frito (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

3192 Hail Your Highness! Do you think I would leave you guys unnoticed?
I must tell you that, when I came back of my 2 day journey and saw our Lady totally "naked" - no clouds, no plume, no eruption - I was devastated.
But then I realized it was not only the beauty of her firework shows that kept me going, but somehow I felt pretty much at home here with you people and all your volcanoes and haikus, and Götterdämmerungs, and PacMen and silly jokes (most of which I don't quite get). So, like Batman, in "Batman returns", here I am. >:-) - (that intends to be Batman)
And still a vassal at your service.
So hold on, because you'll still be hearing from me.
But I suggest we move to the new threads because I don't believe we're getting any more action going on Eyjaf for the next months. So let her rest in her golden slumbers and move our table to the front room. I watched that Steach's video on Yasur and it freaked me out, and that spill of adrenaline made up my mind. I'm ready for the next blow. Drop the pebbles, that I will follow you to the witch's hut!

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@Jón FrÃman (#181). Sorry, but I do not quite follow Jón. What graph or graphs do you refer to? Is it your Heklubyggð geophone/seismometer and the signals between ~08.04 and ~00.38 yesterday are just noise? Or did you mean the tremor graphs at the hraun.vedur.si site? In that case I didn't make it clear in my recent posts that I referred to the 0.5 - 1Hz band displayed in red, sorry. Iirc, it was explained as magma movement beneath the surface and that the blue 2 - 4Hz band was where you saw wind/wave interference(?)

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

@Henrik, Swe, It goes for all the plots. All of them show some level of background noise when nothing of interest is happening. Wind and the ocean waves are the most dominant features of the background noise. They often create the rise then 0.1 to 4Hz bands on the IMO tremor plots. Wind creates thicker bands on my helicorders all the time.

Morning,

I see Hvolsvelli is looking ok this morning.
i suppose this isn't over yet?

By claire uk (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

Well, one can see what appears to be steam from the glacier on the Ãórólfsfelli cam, but it's still too blurry to be sure. Darn thing makes it look like the whole mountainside is writhing. I sure miss the Vodafone camera.....

Blurry or not, it looks like the two bottom arches that were just above the cleft rock have fallen. It could of course be a combination of light and blurry picture.

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 25 May 2010 #permalink

I do believe your right Henrik. :)

@ Raving (your question to me, just spottted,on an earlier thread re: Kitty Kat!)

Yes, you are right; my dad still sometimes calls me that! However it is actually a conundrum - a type of word puzzle (for any non-native English speakers who may wonder what that word means). A conundrum is similar to an anagram.

How formed:

1. I have studied both German and French and the Germans refer to you in the passive as either die or der. "Die Katharine" in my case (e.g. Die Katharine hat mir gesagt", and in French "die" is "la".

2.At the time that I started reading/ "lurking" at Eruptions, everyone was getting quite excited about the possibility of a Katla eruption being triggered by Eyjafjallajokull and I couldn't fail to notice the connection between "us".

Katla genuinely becomes my name when you combine 1. with 2. so this was the catalyst for me starting to post!

So now you know, but why do you call yourself "Raving" ?

@192 Princess Frito
Oh dear - wrong generation, I forgot there was another alternative - "Bert & I' was a Maine-themed comedy team whose renown spread pretty far years ago but probably not out of New England - sorry....nope, not Ernie : )

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Katla is twitching in her sleep.... go back to bed please.

Hi all
@Jón FrÃmann. Dif you get my emails with the SEMS?
In the last one, some images look very funny, more like icecream than ash. I am hoping Erik can tell us what that is.

By Birgit, Austria (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@ Chris no. 210

"What pretty poison is this?" ( from: "Ant and Cleo", Shakespeare)

You are quite right: she does look as if she might be stirring and I, too, want her to go back to sleep as even a milder eruption than her last, would cause extensive flooding and possible loss of life to both humans and animals - let alone extensive economic problems etc.

It is a guilty pleasure to be fascinated by volcanoes and difficult not to want to watch even those which cause extreme hardship. I've read many papers which document what volcanoes give back to the Earth in way of benefits after the chaos of their eruptions but it is hard to evaluate just how symbiotic the relationship really is - perhaps individual location is the all important factor.

Erik has a new thread going today - some info about Eyja as well.

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Frito, it was locking up on the white spot where the steam was rising. Jon F. latest report from IMet says that the locals are hearing "booming" noises 32 kms to the North?

Whats up with that?

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Is that snow on the stones at the Thorolfsfelli-cam?

By Lavendel, Swit… (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@Frito-hime #192: You're more than welcome to use that expression. I don't believe I invented it anyway.

Kukl (as in kukl.is) is a production company that works with MÃla on getting the webcam images out and about.

"Poodle rock band" -- I think I got that expression from Metal Hammer.

Oh, and it's possible to use either WMP or VLC to view the streams from the Hekla and Katla cams.

Re the Flash streams, if you can use the stand-alone Applian player, it can do them.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@Lavendel: More likely a rain slick. Ãórólfsfell is all of 600 m asl, and nearby low-altitude stations are reporting 11, 12, 13°C.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Thanks, Reynir!

By Lavendel, Swit… (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@Dan: My guess is that it's old ash gone with the winds. And good riddance. There are stiff (20+ kts) N-ly surface winds in the area now. Bet it's a lot of föhn there now.

By Reynir, .is (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Erik's new post mentions lots of problems with blowing ash in the ashfall areas....maybe partially why the cams are a mess now -

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@220/222 Wow, that's a lot of ash just blowing off the ground to create those two ash clouds. As bad as being underneath it during the eruption.

An interesting thing has just been pointed out to me on my weather blog. See the face just to the left of the ash? The ghost of volcanoes past is smiling at us. LOL

Dan, more cool is the submarine volcanoes on the left hand side

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@Birgit, Austria, I got your email and I have answered it. There is a lot of things that come with volcano ash. What you are seeing might be some minerals that due come up from the vent in Eyjafjallajökull but might not last long on the surface.

3 EQs at the same place just east of Hamarinn. I know the Vatnajokull volcanic system is there, but any volcanoes in particular at that point?

I thought I'd lost you all, no sign on new thread.
Just had a look at webcams to see if anything was visible, and Eyja all socked in as usual. Katla cam landscape looks like it should be host to a marauding orc army, Lord of the Rings style.

Reynir @220 - I do love a good pun, fish puns preferably but weather puns are just as much fohn...

I'm a french woman who discovered this blog with Eyjafjall's Eruption. I'visited it every day, specially in the evening...just because i'm a beat obsess about volcanoes and Iceland....Hope you'll give us a chance to discover more and more volcanoes....Thanks a lot....Muriel from Limoges

I'm a french woman who discovered this blog with Eyjafjall's Eruption. I'visited it every day, specially in the evening...just because i'm a beat obsess about volcanoes and Iceland....Hope you'll give us a chance to discover more and more volcanoes....Thanks a lot....Muriel from Limoges

Ladies and Gentlemen,I give you a Toast.

Please raise your glasses to Eyja, the little Volcano who proved that she was as strong, powerful and proud as her bigger sisters and who also would not give up !.

By Adrian,Dorset, UK (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

#233 I join you in the toast: "Cheers!"
#231 @Muriel: Sois la bienvenue!

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@232 Muriel Welcome to the blog. This volcano has gotten quite a few people interested in volcanoes. It is fascinating is it not? I now follow the other volcano blogs here also. But recently I have been trying to keep up with the attempt to stop the oil here in the Gulf of Mexico. I will still be around though.

#237
Good evening, Dan, Florida.
I was just wondering why we people, those who aren't either geologists or volcanologists have so much interest in these things.
One thing, for sure: they come out naturally. This oil spill in the Gulf is man-made, and I feel so bad about it.
Hope they will soon come out with a solution.

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@238
Good evening to you too Renato. For me, well I just have an interest in so many things. I love art, theater, music, earth sciences, astronomy, history, architecture, different cultures... and the list goes on ad infinitum. Unfortunately I never take the time to learn any one thing completely. I know a little about a lot, and a lot about very little. Am American expression - Jack of all trades, master of none.

I hope to never stop learning something new until my time has come. It's just too much fun. :)

And oh by the way, I'm a huge Disney fan too! :)

@242 I've noticed the steam plume also, but on the Mulakot cam is where I was watching. It seems like there is more. But there is still a lot of heat, so possibly just more water runoff or maybe a little shifting of some ice?

I have been using some satellites that I got access to over the last couple of weeks and they are registering warm. I am not sure where Grimsvotn is exactly up on that big ice sheet. Every now and then I get a little spike-a momentary flash. What does it mean? For all I know its some bum on a snowmobile juicing up the start with some either. Its within a 5 km radius of the high peak on the grade on the north side of the glacier. They label the other volcanoes, why not the others. Whatever. The sats show about a 1 megapixel flash on the top of Eyjaf and thats intermittent right now. When I get one I zoom down to the FLIR side by side and take a look. This is the same spot that was lit up for a time as the sun began to set there.

I will say that the area from above is slightly warmer than the surrounding areas. Insulated from the ice it might be the ash. For me though, I would set that filter for the FLIR to discriminate for anything lower than 120. You wouldnt see the contour of the hills, but you wouldnt be chasing your tail either.

Oh-Dan, watch the area S of Honduras as there will be a storm coming across the mountains into the Caribbean by Friday. Right now the models are for Miami... I think it will go to the west side myself unless something dramatic happens.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

#239 @Dan, Florida:
Sorry, I was away from the computer didn't see your post.
"... art, theater, music, earth sciences, astronomy, history, architecture, different cultures..."
.. and volcanoes!
That makes two of us.
Dan, I have a degree in Biology, but have been working as stage director and teacher at the University in Rio. Difficult as it might seem, I succeeded with not much effort and proceeded in my artistic career leaving back my beloved sciences. But never totally. Always curious. That's why I'm here. I suspect people in this blog share pretty much the same interests, wished I had more time to be around. Good to know you're there, in the other edge of the world (well, sort of) feeling the same!
Now, there's some action going in this volcano world. Just take a look at the other threads.

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

Funny steam puffs from the left of the crater... (Thorosfell)

By Renato I Silveira (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

@ Raving L no. 249

So you are a "loon", and a "Great Northern Diver", who likes catching fish and whose real name is 'Laval'?!!

Adrian, (#233) hear, hear! That's why she sleeps so long, but after this event there's a smugness or sense of accomplishment visible on her countenance, her ever-white gown now black.

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 26 May 2010 #permalink

A single deep earthquake according to the automatic system. This might be the first earthquake that indicates that a new flow of magma is coming.

We are going to have wait and see what happens next.

Jon-What site has the graphic plot for the depth of the quakes? I had it and now I cant find it in the jumble of everything we have put together on this.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 27 May 2010 #permalink

Have a look at dagmar #25 on the new thread....

By birdseyeUSA (not verified) on 27 May 2010 #permalink

How much water (H2O) and other gases (most notably SO2) is estimated to evaporate in this 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption?