Iceland
grrlscientist | May 30, 2010tags: BestiFlokkurinn, Besti Flokkurinn, politics, Reykjavik, Iceland, social observation, Jón Gnarr Kristinsson, ferrets, humor, funny, satire, offbeat, streaming video
"We are the best" -- this satirical video is made by Iceland's Best party, endorsing comedian Jón Gnarr Kristinsson for Mayor of Reykjavik in 2010. Among his campaign promises? Iceland's very own polar bear, wow! (Nevermind that the last polar bear was a self-delivered visitor that was shot almost immediately after it stepped onto land)
Jón Gnarr Kristinsson speech at the end looks eerily of Hitler, then I discovered that…
eklemetti | May 28, 2010This week has been destroyed by workshops and my last death throes with a paper I am submitting on my research in New Zealand. And to think, I thought it might settle down a little after the students left.
To news!
Ash fall on a taxi cab near Guatemala's Pacaya.
Pacaya in Guatemala erupted yesterday causing evacuations of people near the volcano and the closure of Guatemala City's main airport. Pacaya is a mere ~25 km from the capitol of this Central American nation. Tragically, a news reporter from one of the capitol's TV stations died when they were struck by volcanic debris, again…
eklemetti | May 26, 2010Brief news!
Lava flows reaching the sea at Kilauea in Hawai`i. Image from November 2009, courtesy of HVO/USGS.
The Alert Status at Cleveland in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands was raised to Yellow (Advisory) by the Alaska Volcano Observatory after new signs of activity emerged. The latest report from AVO on the volcano says a thermal anomaly has been spotted at the summit, which typically is one of the first signs that the volcano is entering an eruption period. However, there is no real-time seismic monitoring for Cleveland, so that is the only clue (right now) that AVO has. Cleveland is a…
eklemetti | May 24, 2010For all of you going into withdrawal now that Eyjafjallajökull seems to have quieted down, there are two eruptions of note that aren't in the North Atlantic:
Undated image of the Barujari cone at Mt. Rinjani in Indonesia.
Arenal in Costa Rica - which is almost always sputtering away - had a more significant explosive and effusive event today. The volcano produced enough ash, bombs and gas emissions - along with 8 lava flows (or avalanches, depending on the source) - to prompt the evacuation of the National Park around the volcano. Arenal has had numerous strombolian eruptions over the last…
eklemetti | May 24, 2010The 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…
catdynamics | May 23, 2010The eruption in Eyjafjallajökull has abated and latest reports sunday show the vent closed and no ash or lava flow.
Míla camera shows small steam plume monday morning
The mountain is quiet, no earthquakes right now, nor any in Katla.
There have been many small earthquakes around Iceland, some in worrying places, but no consistent pattern.
The eruption could resume again, the 1821-3 eruption had interim pauses, or the montain could sleep for a few centuries now.
Next question is whether Katla will erupt as it has before, or possibly other sites long this fissure system; Katla is bad, but not…
eklemetti | May 20, 2010The ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull, piercing the cloud deck above the volcano. Image courtesy of the Icelandic Met Office, taken on May 13, 2010. See the latest report on the eruption.
With all the rapid fire news on eruptions as of late, combined with my busy schedule during the school year, I haven't been able to post as many articles on some basic aspects of volcanology. I will try to remedy some of this over the summer and the first will look at volcanic ash and specifically the ash from Eyjafjallajökull. I've taken some photomicrographs of the ash from Eyjafjallajökull (sent to me…
eklemetti | May 20, 2010The latest Weekly Volcanic Activity Report from our friends at the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program and the USGS.
Highlights (not including Eyjafjallajökull - you can check the latest IMO update on that eruption and the latest VAAC ash advisories.):
Villarrica in Chile was raised from Alert Level 1 to 2 by the Chilean SERNAGEOMIN after an increase in seismicity, a rise in the lava lake levels at the summit and more vigorous fumarolic activity.
In the first update in a while, a small ash plume was noticed at Chaiten in Chile, rising to ~1.8 km (8,000 feet) from the new domes.
Karymsky in…
eklemetti | May 18, 2010News, news, news!
Ash from Eyjafjallajökull piling up on a roof at Seljavellir. Image courtesy of the IMO, by Ari Tryggvason.
The latest from Eyjafjallajökull has the volcano continuing to puff away - producing intermittent airspace closures over Europe. The Icelandic Met Office reports a ~7 km (21,000 foot) ash plume, but they note that the explosivity of the eruption seems to have waned some since a maximum on May 13. Right now, the IMO estimates the eruption rate at ~200 tonnes/second. Lets put that in a little perspective - a Ford F-150 pickup weighs about 2 tonnes, so the volcano is…
catdynamics | May 18, 2010It is not true that, after the failure to put a specially made "top hat" on top of Eyjafjallajökull to stem the ash plume, there will be an attempt to put a hose on top of the mountain to capture the ash;
rather an attempt will be made to inject a lot of golf balls (used, collected from Akureyri, mostly) and old rubber bands into the vent in the hope that these will jam up the lava flow long enough to stop the eruption of ash...
From Edwin Roald - Golf Course Design - in Iceland
catdynamics | May 17, 2010you know how sometimes a bank will just decide that it didn't like how the original term of its loan worked out and it will just change the deal to something better?
They can do that, it is all in the fine print.
Now they've done it again
and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
See, in the debacle that was the end of the Icelandic financial system, a lot of things were tried - kinda stuff I am quite sure will never happen in more mature responsible systems in the developed world.
One thing was the need for capital reserves for the banks as losses started to mount.
The simplest…
eklemetti | May 17, 2010Some news for a sleepy Monday:
Mt. Hood in Oregon.
The ash from Eyjafjallajökull is, once again, causing significant airspace closure over northern Europe - close of 1,000 flights today. However, much of the closures are fairly short-lived, but that isn't keeping people happy. The eruption hasn't actually changed much, just that the winds are bringing ash towards Europe. The ash for the next few days will likely effect the England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, France and possibly other parts of northern Europe (along with airspace over Greenland and the north Atlantic). The ash plume is…
eklemetti | May 14, 2010Time to play a little catch up ...
Eyjafjallajökull erupting in early May. Image by and courtesy of Martin Rietze.
A brief update on our friend Eyjafjallajökull - the eruption plume from the volcano was considerably taller yesterday, reaching 6-9 km (20,000-30,000 feet), but prevailing winds meant the ash hazard was confined to areas in the middle of the North Atlantic and northern parts of the British Isles. However, even as the ash hazard for Europe wanes (for now), you shouldn't forget the amount of ash being dumped on parts of Iceland. If you want to see some stunning images of the…
eklemetti | May 13, 2010An aerial view of Eyjafjallajökull erupting on May 11, 2010, with the extent of the black ash from the eruption on GÃgjökull clearly evident, along with the cracks in the glacier near the lava flow. Photo from the Icelandic Met Office, by Sigurlaug Hjaltadóttir.
Since this past weekend's disruptions due to Eyjafjallajökull, the air over Europe has cleared and most of the airports in Spain, Portugal and Germany (along with those in Morocco) have reopened. The current ash advisory by the London VAAC looks like it will only effect transatlantic flights and Iceland itself, with the ash cloud…
catdynamics | May 12, 2010Útrásar Víkingar - that is what we called them, the new Masters of the Universe who set forth from Iceland in the last decade to conquer the new world of finance.
As with their predecessors, once off-shore, their enrichment schemes ended up involving more looting and raping than maybe was really essential, and as with their predecessors, they brought the aggro back home with them.
It is a hard concept to translate, best I could come up with was "Sally Vikings" - in the sense of how a besieged fortress might send out a raiding party, no intent to conquer permanently, and not really to break…
catdynamics | May 11, 2010As you may recall, over 18 months ago Iceland lead the world into a minor financial crisis, with the rest of y'all toddling along later.
Now Iceland takes the lead again, as a Special Prosecutor issues some indictments and the perps start walking...
In the autumn of 2008 all three Icelandic investment banks collapsed in quick succession, followed by the currency, financial system and the government.
Exciting times.
The root cause was that the banks had essentially looted the entire economy, while overleveraging their banks, fakes capital through circle-jerk loans, and given out bonuses and…
eklemetti | May 11, 2010I an in the home stretch for grading exams, so just a quick update for today:
The evidence of floods from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, taken on May 1, 2010 by Dr. Joe Licciardi.
Airports now as far south as Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands are facing closures due to the Eyjafjallajökull ash. The latest London VAAC ash advisory has the ash wrapping around western and southern Europe, which I am sure is making life interesting for routing transatlantic flights into Europe. The flights within Europe don't seem to be that effected according to Eurocontrol - and they have even dropped the…
eklemetti | May 10, 2010A shot of the summit area of Eyjafjallajökull, showing the twin steam-and-ash plumes from the lava flow and active vent. Picture taken by Dr. Joseph Licciardi (UNH).
Over the weekend, the newly reinvigorated ash eruptions from Eyjafjallajökull combined with favorable winds meant that ash from the eruption closed airspace over swaths of Europe, including Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria and Germany. These disruptions are continuing into the new week, although most of the disruption is for transatlantic flights. However, the threat of ash is more present than ever, as Ryanair admitted…
eklemetti | May 7, 2010The GÃgjökull outlet glacier on Eyjafjallajökull, showing the steaming lava flow carving its way through the glacier. Image taken May 5, 2010 by Dr. Joseph Licciardi.
A quick update on the ongoing activity at Eyjafjallajökull:
The activity at the volcano continues to be more explosive during the last few days than it was in the previous week, leading to more potential for airspace closures over Europe if the winds were to shift. Currently, the VAAC ash advisory only seems to suggest that even Spain may get a taste of the ash sometime tomorrow, but most of Europe will be OK. However,…
catdynamics | May 6, 2010Couple of new webcams checking on the volcano
it is stirring again.
click to embiggen
Hi Res vodafone.is webcam
New IR camera from mila.is
The ash cloud is getting back up into the atmosphere, so the jet stream can sweep it east, Europe can expect more airspace disruption.
In the meantime you can buy genuine fresh Icelandic volcano ash from nammi.is, who also do a line of cheerful commemorative t-shirts.