Iceland raises aviation alert to red as volcano eruption begins

a reply to: Dianec

Thanks Diane that article was a great read. So he is estimating a 90% chance of eruption and out of that, a 10% chance of it being a large rifting fissure eruption. Fissure eruptions can last months/or even years so hopefully worse case scenario doesn't pan out but agree it doesn't look good at all.

a reply to: Dianec

Link

From the same site, they talking about what type intrusion it is, they say it is unique which makes it far harder to understand and potentially more dangerous. If it turns into a Flood basalt event (deccan traps etc) the worse case scenario is potentially far worse than anyone can imagine.

a reply to: glend

So I looked it up and it appears the widespread/catastrophic damage is done by the amount of sulphur dioxide released. This turns into sulphuric acid, which reflects sunlight back into space. Toba in Indonesia released so much of it, it's thought it dropped temperatures (rapidly) up to 20 degrees F worldwide.
As long as this thing isn't as close to that size and/or doesn't eject that much sulphur dioxide it will have only local effects.

I read somewhere they had opened camping close to this place. A local businessman was told he could resume business (near the tourist attraction one that starts with an A - has a lake they swim in). I'm in a rush so won't look it up again but that seems sorta screwy. I wouldn't camp anywhere near this thing right now.

a reply to: Dianec

Either would I. Seems that a small eruption started an hour a go.

Link

from iceland office...

An eruption started in Holuhraun north of Dyngjujökull at around 00:02. Seismic tremor was observed on all seismic stations and the web camera installed in the area by Mila has showed some nice pictures of the eruption. It is a small fissure eruption and at 02:40 AM the activity appears to have decreased.

live feed from the event
www.livefromiceland.is...
www.livefromiceland.is...

A short note issued from the Iceland Meteorological Office:

Warning A fissure eruption has started north of Dynjujökull.

Aviation colour level is red again.

The red aviation alert has been cancelled.

Lava shooting 100ft in air, both beautiful and deadly...

a reply to: glend

When I see lava it makes me want a hot jam butty

a reply to: glend

Woo! That's impressive, and scary too. There is apparently no ash with the lava, and that's the reason the IMOffice says it will keep the aviation level as is. Airlines say they are monitoring. I know that I would not want to take any unnecessary chances flying too close to it, but talk about impressive! This one is special, imo.

a reply to: aboutface

No ash but its now outputting approx. 20,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere daily. MET Office reports that more magma is entering the dyke than being erupted so it must be going somewhere. I think its special as well.

Interesting that it seems to like getting it's magma-funk on at night.

-At first I thought it was just the fact that the darkness makes the eruption more apparent, but nope, she's givin 'er, like clockwork when the sun goes down.

a reply to: canucks555

Maybe the pull of the moon has a lot of influence in it?

originally posted by: aboutface
a reply to: canucks555

Maybe the pull of the moon has a lot of influence in it?

Huh? Nothings changed with the moon lately as far as I know? Does the moon even influence anything besides tides?
You do know even if the moon has a effect the moon is still there during daytime right?

a reply to: proob4

Sorry, I don't know what effect if any, the moon has on it. I just threw that out there, although I did watch an older documentary about eruption mostly happening around certain phases of the moon. I have to admit that I don't know if it has been confirmed or disproven.

Seems that the possibility of an explosion has increased of late....

Bárðarbunga volcano has lowered some 15 meters according to latest measurements. This does not reduce the risk of eruption in Bárðarbunga caldera, in fact, this might increase it by a large margin. Such large drop in a mountain has not happened in Iceland since Askja 1875 when that volcano dropped some 300 meters in one of the largest eruption in the 19th century. According to the news on Rúv the caldera crust is in fact floating the magma that is keeping it up.
Source

So, what will most likely happen at the caldera? For starters, it is normal for rapidly deflating large magma chambers to cause deflation caldera formations. Normally this does not lead to an eruption, or lead to just small eruptions since a deflating caldera floor is a sign of loss of pressure.

In this case we need to take into account that there are two large pools of water below the ice over the caldera floor, and that the ice in and of itself can rapidly transform into water. If that water finds a way down into the extremely hot magma reservoir the water will instantly transform into supercritical steam and a steam explosion will occur. In that case pure physics take over; if a small amount of water hits a small area of hot material a fairly benign explosive event happens. If a large amount of water hits a small area of hot material a prolonged event follows. If a small amount of water hits a large area of hot material a short rapid explosive event happens. And if a large amount of water finds a large area of warm material I would prefer to be more than 50 kilometers away.

Source