Iceland
eklemetti | April 17, 2010
The eruptive plume from Eyjafjallajökull taken Holsvelli webcam. Image courtesy of Mattias Larsson.
Sorry to disappoint everyone visiting to blog while they sit at any number of airports around the world, but the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull appears to still be going strong. The Icelandic Met Office is heading up to the volcano to conduct a survey of the crater area to find out (1) what it looks like and (2) how much new water (i.e., ice) is there available for the erupting magma. More water is likely to mean more explosive eruptions in this phreatoplinian style - however, like I…
catdynamics | April 16, 2010The Finnish Air Force got some F-18s into an ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull.
Far, far from the source, somewhere over Europe.
They then checked the engines with a boroscope.
This is why you don't fly turbojets through volcanic ash plumes.
Glassy pumice flakes meet metal turbine at 900 km/h.
From an F-18 part of a flight of five on training mission April 15th, just before air space closure.
click to enlarge from ilmavoimat.fi
view of melted volcanic ash on the korkeapaineturbiinin ;-)
more images here and here
h/t flightglobal.com and RUV
catdynamics | April 16, 2010You are not superstitious, are you?
Eyjafjallajökull - from the air is it clear that there are three craters in the caldera.
click to enlarge
The mind does some great interpolative associative processing ;-)
Image is radar, from an Icelandic coastguard plane.
The craters are 200-500m across. For now.
eklemetti | April 16, 2010Hard to believe, but there is other volcano-related news in the world ...
So, with all deference to Eyjafjallajokull, here it is:
Dome collapse on Colima in Mexico, image taken March 30, 2010.
The new Smithsonian/USGS GVP Weekly Volcano Activity Report was issued, with news about increasing signs of activity at Egon in Indonesia, a possible plume at Miyakejima in Japan and more dome growth at Soufriere Hills.
A study on the economic effect of a new Vesuvius eruption was released and the finding show the potential for a staggering $24 billion of economic damage directly related to an…
eklemetti | April 16, 2010
The ash plume from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption.
To say that the Eyjafjallajökull eruption has become the most significant volcano-related news story of the year would be an understatement. There has been wall-to-wall coverage on every major media outlet, dissecting everything from the effect of ash on jets, to the effect of ash on people, to wildly premature commentary on the climatic effect of the eruption to the potential place in history of this event. The eruption is affecting a wide swath through society: the European economy may take a hit of billions of dollars due to…
catdynamics | April 15, 2010There is a webcam from vodafone at the northwest side of the volcano - it caught the onset of the major flooding this evening
Popup images - click to enlarge.
Before:
14:02 local
During:
19:04 local
After:
19:19
after that there appears to be some haze obscuring the view...
PS: aftermath
13:30 the next day - the white bits are chunks of ice from the glacier - BIG chunks of ice...
From vodafone.is
catdynamics | April 15, 2010Flash flood alert at Markárfljót and Fljótshlíð in Iceland.
The real flood is finally here...
Almannavarnir (Civil Defence Authority) in Iceland has issued a general urgent evacuation alert for Fljótshlíð - a scenic farming area southwest of Eyjafjallajökull due to major flooding.
Gígsjöull lets go - from visir.is
from mbl.is
There were two previous flood surges yesterday, but it was known that the bulk of the ice cap was still in place, melting.
The few km3 of water had only two places to go - it could go up, as steam explosions carrying ash, or break out sideways and come down the…
eklemetti | April 15, 2010
The ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption as it spreads over Europe on April 15, 2010.
The newly-subglacial Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010 has now begun to be felt outside of Iceland. The ash being thrown into the atmosphere from this explosive phase of the eruption has prompted officials in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway to close the airspace above their nations due to the threat that ash poses to jet aircraft. Remember, the silica glass shards that make up most ash can melt inside jet engines, causing them to stall - which could lead to crashing. Luckily, so far we have not…
catdynamics | April 14, 2010After a brief hiatus during which the first two fissuers at Fimmvörðuháls closed, the main caldera at Eyjafjallajökull let rip early in the morning of April 14th.
ash plume through the clouds - from visir.is - click to embiggen
There was a jökulhlaup - wish I could have been there with Vatnamælingar on my old route... - actually there were 2 of them, so far. Only about 1/4-1/3 of the ice cap has melted, it is about 1/4 km thick and several km across.
There are, apparently, 5 active vents inside a 1-2 km caldera, with ash rising to 5-10 km.
Heavy ashfall reported across the east, with ash…
eklemetti | April 14, 2010
The steam and ash plume from the Eyjafjallajökull subglacial eruption that started early morning, April 14, 2010.
Well, after the brief respite when there was speculation Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption might be over, we now know what was going on. After the original fissures ceased activity, the magma found a new route to the surface, this time underneath the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. Eruptions readers last night watched as an earthquake swarm arrived underneath the icecap, which prompted Icelandic officials to start evacuating people from the area around the volcano (photo…
catdynamics | April 13, 2010The RNA committee of the Icelandic Alþingi has, finally, issued its Black Report, into the collapse of the Icelandic economy and the events leading up to it.
The entire report, all 2000 pages or so, are being read aloud by a series of actors at the City Theater.
Initial reactions range from the weasel "mistakes were made", through blunt assertions of robbery and treason.
It can be done...
I remember, as an idealistic teenager, being outraged as I became conscious of the ongoing political corruption in Iceland.
Yet, there was some reassurance in noting its pettiness.
It was a bottle, or a…
eklemetti | April 13, 2010
The Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption on April 7, 2010.
Just as we were speculating that the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption might be over, Icelandic officials may have ordered an evacuation for towns (icelandic) in the area (but information in english is scant). There have been a recent swarm of shallow earthquakes underneath the Eyjafjallajökull ice cap - and if there is any chance that this could be signs of a new eruption under the ice, evacuations are justified. This could mean a jökulhlaup could be generated. These glacial floods are highly destructive, so getting…
eklemetti | April 12, 2010
The Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption at night on April 10, 2010.
I mentioned this earlier in the Monday Musings column, but the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in Iceland that started last month seems to be at a nadir of activity since its inception. This is being interpreted by the Icelandic Met Office as a sign that the eruption itself may be winding down after less than a month of activity - the earthquakes and inflation associated with the eruption appears to be subsiding along with the actual eruptive activity. Now, there is always the chance that the fissure will…
eklemetti | April 12, 2010Lots to do!
Tourists flock to the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls in Iceland.
The media does love the term "supervolcano", and a number of Eruptions readers sent me a link to the article on the dreaded submarine "supervolcanoes". I would delve into this article from Live Science, but it sadly again does a dreadful job with a lot of this - remember, "supervolcano" is a made-up word by the BBC with no strict definition, so trying to say there are a dozen supervolcanoes worldwide is just silly. And why does it take multiple paragraphs and multiple mentions of "scientists" before they get a…
catdynamics | April 8, 2010The volcanic eruption at Eyjafjallajökull continues, but, for now at least, is a "tourist eruption", as nice as they get, with a huge flood of tourists to the mountain on clear days and a boom industry in getting sightseers out to the mountain.
From rainbowgirl on flickr via fiveprime - click through to source and full size photos
The original fissure that erupted has closed after building up a nice cinder cone, but the second fissure mostly consolidated into a single crater which continues strong.
The mountain is still rumbling and swelling, suggesting magma continues to flow under the…
eklemetti | April 8, 2010The eruption at Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls continues on - the explosive spatter and bomb eruptions at the new central vent (on the second fissure) were impressive all night, making the hikers/cars/aircraft look like mites in comparison. This eruption has, so far, followed the pattern of Hawaiian-style volcanism quite well, so I thought it could be a good time to talk about what exactly Hawaiian-style volcanism is. There is a sequence of events that leads up to and follows the start of an Hawaiian-style eruption - although this sequence can stop at any point along the way - but it is…
eklemetti | April 7, 2010Actually, no the volcanoes aren't from space, but pictures of the volcanoes were taken from space. The NASA Earth Observatory has posted three more gems of volcanic activity taken by one of the fleet of earth imagers in orbit:
A recent image of Chaiten taken by EO-1. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
There is a great image of the busy Kamchatkan Peninsula, where four volcanoes are seen erupting in a single image - Kliuchevskoi, Bezymianny, Shiveluch and Karymsky. The plume from Karymsky is especially prominent as a grey streak above the white snow of the Russian winter (albeit…
eklemetti | April 5, 2010Quick hits for a Monday morning (however, the week did have a good start).
Lava fountaining on March 27, 2010 at the Eyjafjallajokull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in Iceland.
The Eyjafjallajokull-Fimmvörduháls eruption is still going strong with two active fissure - and a lot of tourists poking around as well. If you watch the webcams closely, you can even see the cars and hikers trekking up near the erupting basaltic fissure (except today, as there seems to be a blizzard). Not to say that people are getting a little, well, nonchalant, but there is a story of serving meals cooked on lava up…
catdynamics | March 31, 2010Second fissure has opened up northwest of the original on Fimmvörðuháls, east of Eyjafjallajökull.
This is NOT towards Katla.
Geologists on site saw the fissure open as it happened. As of this evening it is still growing, with 7 centers of eruption.
Þórsmörk has been closed, lave should flow north towards it.
Hikers on the northside were evacuated by helicopter.
RUV initial report with webcam photo (icelandic)
webcam link
you can see it even in the dark.
Better live view from the south
both from mila.is
double your pleasure
Original fissure has a spectacular lava fall, currently there is…