Iceland
eklemetti | May 6, 2010Grading grading grading!
A webcam capture of the eruptive plume from Eyjafjallajökull on the morning of May 6, 2010.
News:
A quick update on the Eyjafjallajökull eruption: The volcano has been producing an impressive ash plume over the last day (see image above). The current ash plume is reaching 5.8-6 km height (19-20,000 ft) - and causing some trouble over Ireland and Scotland. However, much of airspace closed yesterday has reopened (for now). You can see two new images of the ash plume over at the NASA Earth Observatory. As for the continued fallout from the ash plume from April,…
eklemetti | May 5, 2010
A shot of the strombolian activity at the vent of Eyjafjallajökull, taken on May 4, 2010. Image courtesy of the Iceland Met Office.
The latest news from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption has the volcano erupting more explosively again (see above), possibly due to an increased influx of water into the vent area - in any case, the ash has become denser (by volume in the air) and the plume is higher (see below) than in the last couple of weeks. The rate of lava flow extrusion has also gone down in the last few days. The latest update from the Iceland Met Office has a lot of details on the current…
eklemetti | May 3, 2010
The steam plume from a lava flow moving down the slopes of Eyjafjallajökull on May 2, 2010.
A quick note on the activity at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland: The ash from the ongoing eruption has caused a partial closure of airspace over Ireland from 0600 to 1200 on Tuesday May 4. This is one of the first closures of European airspace since airspace reopened over 10 days ago. This closure is based on the predicted location of ash in flight corridors over Ireland tomorrow.
The Icelandic Met Office has released two interesting updates on the activity at Eyjafjallajökull. The first describes the…
eklemetti | May 2, 2010
Webcam capture of Eyjafjallajökull erupting on May 2, 2010. You can see the steam plume on the middle flanks of the volcano - this is likely a lava flow coming from the summit vents.
A brief update on activity at Eyjafjallajökull:
Overnight, the lava flows from Eyjafjallajökull could be seen in the crater of the ice cap - some of the images posted by Eruptions readers are simply stunning. You can clearly see the red glow of the strombolian eruptions at the vent, and the glow of the lava flows as they had down the slope of the volcano. This has brought a lot of new melting to the snow/…
eklemetti | April 30, 2010News!
Colima in Mexico erupting in 2008.
The current activity at Eyjafjallajökull is more-or-less unchanged, with strombolian activity producing a 3-4 km tall ash-and-steam plume and the lava flows at the crater moving northward towards the GÃgjökull glacier. You can check out an extensive page on the state of this eruption at the Nordic Volcanological Center - along with a new page with thermal and LIDAR information on the eruption from France.
The Icelandic Met Office notes that the lava has been producing meltwater from the glacier - which many Eruptions readers have noticed as floods…
eklemetti | April 28, 2010
An undated painting of the island volcano of Ischia near the Bay of Naples, Italy.
Guess what? It is the end of the semester (well, school year) here at Denison, so I might be a little busy for the next couple weeks.
Here are some news bits (with special thanks to all who emailed me some of these links):
Boris might have more information or opinion on this, but Italy is back in the news concerning the threat of volcanism to the country. This time the volcano is Ischia, off the coast in the Bay of Naples. Guido Bertolaso of Italy's civil protection agency is quoted as saying that the "magma…
eklemetti | April 26, 2010
Night image of Eyjafjallajökull erupting on April 24, 2010. Image courtesy of James Ashworth.
A quick update on the Eyjafjallajökull eruption: Not a lot to report in terms of changes in the volcanic activity at the volcano. The update from the Icelandic Met Office last night sums it up nicely:
Overall activity similar as yesterday. Eruption seen from west in the morning - north crater still active. External water has not affected vent activity much since 18 April. Geologists' field observations (2-10 km from vents) show that explosivity is magmatic and that the tephra produced since 18…
eklemetti | April 23, 2010
A night shot of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption showing the glowing plume from the strombolian explosions and the Aurora Borealis overhead.
A quick update on the current activity at Eyjafjallajökull eruption: the eruption continues at the summit craters, but there seems to be less ash being erupted, at least yesterday. The latest update from the Icelandic Met Office suggest that things are settling down - but floods are still periodically being produced by melting of the glacier:
Volcanic tremor has been similar the last 24 hours. GPS stations around Eyjafjallajökull showed deflation…
catdynamics | April 22, 2010Well, Eyjafjallajökull is bubbling along nicely, there is still some ash coming out, but not high enough to carry as far, and less of it.
And the wind is turning, so tomorrow Icelandic airports will close as the ash comes back west across the country.
There is also a curiousity on the ice cap above the Katla volcano.
Life, however goes on, and there is a new band in Iceland.
That I like.
The Icelandic Coastguard sent their
new TF-SIF back over the eruption and got a new radar image of the caldera at Eyjafjallajökull
click to popup bigger image
yup, this caldera - the eruption has…
eklemetti | April 22, 2010
A strombolian eruption in the crater of Eyjafjallajökull, taken on April 19, 2010. Image courtesy of the Icelandic Met Office.
The Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland has been one of the most fascinating eruptions in recent memory - and this is beyond the fact that it is a prime example of a "wired" eruption, where people from around the world can follow every aspect of the eruption from the comfort of their home. What will really be interesting is the political fallout from the six day closure of the airspace over most of Europe due to the ash. If you read the press, you'd think that…
illconsidered | April 21, 2010Don't miss April 19th's APOD, a truly awsome sight!
And while on the subject of Eyjafjallajokull and my recent post about it, readers should be aware of a correction on the source site. The best estimate of CO2 is in fact 150,000 tons per day, not 7400, with a possible maximum of 300,000 tons per day. So the graphic is much less compelling, but the story of Joe vs the Volcano is not affected.
eklemetti | April 21, 2010
The ash-and-steam plume from Eyjafjallajökull on April 19, 2010.
Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland is slowly settling into a pattern of strombolian-to-surtseyan (depending on meltwater access to the crater) explosions that have been sending ash up to 2-5 km above the summit. We can see this new, more diffuse plume in the recent NASA EO image of the eruption taken April 19. There is still abundant ice to melt at the summit as there have been a number of floods overnight and this morning near the volcano, betraying the continuing production of meltwater by the eruption. The Icelandic Met office…
catdynamics | April 20, 2010Comedy Channel went wild on Iceland last night.
For those who could not stay up late...
Kevin? Kevin!?
No, call him "Tim", Mighty Tim
If you must.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Volcanolypse 2010
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Tea Party
"We can't bomb them because we can't fly..."
The Colbert Report
Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Volcano Eyjafjallajokull
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor
Fox News
eklemetti | April 20, 2010
Eyjafjallajokull erupting on 4/17/2010, image by Marco Fulle. Note the "rooster tails" of ash and steam, typical for Surtseyan eruptions.
European airspace has slowly begun to reopen as the explosive eruptions at Eyjafjallajökull have become less intense over the last 24 hours. However, there is still lots of hazardous airspace and airports around places like London and across the UK remain closed - leaving people stranded. We will still have to wait to see what the political ramification are, especially after EU officials claim "flaws" in their decision and the over $1 billion losses by…
eklemetti | April 19, 2010
National Geographic film crew near Eyjafjallajökull, April 18, 2010.
UPDATE 1PM EDT 4/19/2010: I can almost categorically say that Hekla is NOT erupting, contrary to Twitter or the brief banner on MSNBC. See my comment below (#68).
In what is sounding like a bit of a broken record, the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull is still going. However, we might be beginning to see some changes in the style of volcanism - even the first suggestion of lava flows at the new crater. As mentioned yesterday, since the eruption became subglacial, we've been seeing eruptions where water - in this case glacial…
catdynamics | April 18, 2010Pretty pictures galore this weekend
facebook video from Norðurflug - helivideo upwind from the volcano
NASA's Aqua MODIS
Between Heaven and Hell - fb - extraordinary images from Náttúra Íslands
Cool ITN footage from April 19th
Don't forget to head for Eruptions for all things volcanic - good stuff in the comments
eklemetti | April 18, 2010Some very quick notes on Eyjafjallajökull:
Eyjafjallajökull erupting at night on April 17/18, 2010, with impressive incandescent explosions.
European airlines are taking "test flights" to see the effect of the ash on their aircraft in hopes to convince EU officials to reopen airspace. Now, officials from KLM say that everything went fine in their test flight, but I haven't seen any details about flightplans, altitude and all the sorts of info you'd want to see if you want to believe these test flights are representative. However, the president of KLM does have a bit of a point in saying…
catdynamics | April 18, 2010Icelandic radio is reporting that the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has shifted gear this morning, possibly down a notch, in a good way.
For now.
The explosive ash eruption from the volcano seems to have abated - there is still ash but right now not being flung up into the stratosphere where the jet stream carries it to Europe.
The reason seems to be that a cut has opened in the side of the caldera and ice melt is now draining steadily down the side of the mountain - this both reduced the danger of further flash floods, and the danger of phreatic eruptions.
Basically, the ash plume was being…
illconsidered | April 17, 2010[UPDATE: readers should be aware of a correction on the source site. The best estimate of CO2 is in fact 150,000 tons per day, not 7400, with a possible maximum of 300,000 tons per day. So the graphic is much less compelling, but the story of Joe vs the Volcano is not affected.]
Even if I can't say it, the volcano Eyjafjallajokull is great to illustrate just how ludicrous the "Volcanoes emit more CO2" argument is. Courtesy of Information Is Beautiful, here is a very telling graphic.
Is there really a need to say more?
eklemetti | April 17, 2010
Webcam shot of Eyjafjallajökull erupting on April 17, 2010.
I don't want to get too far into this but there has been a lot of chatter about the link between melting ice caps and increase/decrease/neither of volcanism. The two main articles we're talking about are:
Scientific American, saying that ice loss could increase volcanism:
Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes
The long and short of the Scientific American study is that you reduce the pressure of rocks in the crust/mantle below Iceland, you generate more melting - depressurization melting of rock. If you melt the ice cap, you…