Rumblings from another Icelandic volcano

[GloriaSmud]

and it's a big 'un!
This time at Bárðarbunga, with over 200 earthquakes recorded so far and last night, the Icelandic Met Office raised the aviation colour code to yellow to reflect the unrest that's going on.

Ash apparently falling over Akureyri according to the Icelandic Red Cross

Youtube live stream is now watchable

Have these pictures been mentioned yet - Facebook Link - Jardvis

Another video feed should it be needed. Article with live video (Requires Flash)

The EQs North East of the BlackSpot I mentioned earlier, that looks like it is in the location of Herdubreid.
Could that be the next place to erupt?

The Bardarbunga 2 camera is shaking all over the place at the moment!

mount Tavurvur has been rather spectacular :)

Some good facts and figures from todays eruption from Jon F. 3-5 square km of lava flow already produced!

This is shaping up to a pretty good eruption all in all, even some speculation that it may become a new shield volcano. Just need Bárðarbunga to behave.

Perhaps nannynick - it does seem to be gaining momentum. Absolutely rotten timing of the storm though. I knew this would happen.

Rafa - that 3D model is amazing. I discovered that it's one of those tilt and rotate models, so you can move it to get a bird's eye view or look at it from underneath. It shows very clearly how much activity is going on.

The youtube video above shows it is still going strong. The visibility is much better than earlier.

Also found this on a link from the Jin F site linked above.

Beautiful footage of the lava flow

Jon F

Sorry, Wanda, I meant to say you could tilt and rotate it when I posted the link but forgot.

Wow it's all so amazing!

That's amazing footage of the lava ~ it seems to move at a such a steady rate. I'm at the size of the fountains, says here that some are 50-60metres high!

Today's update here on Jón Frímann's blog. Not liking that he thinks there's now a high risk of an eruption from the Bárðarbunga caldera.

I know Gloria. It is amazing,

It's a sort of reminder, for me anyway, that no matter what we do to the planet, Mother Nature is there, doing what she does best, steadily moving forward and won't let anything stop her.

I could watch up for hours as it's very beautiful!

Thanks so much again for starting this thread. Xxx

It is very awe inspiring!

Just wanted to say well done and thanks to Gloria for keeping an eye on Iceland and alerting us to this so we could watch it in real time. I know she has been keeping an eye out for this sort of thing for rather a long time and it has paid off very nicely :)

So this isnt as bad as everyone thought?

The lava is certainly flowing a lot at the moment.

Bad, as in lots of Ash? Bad as in melting glacier?

It's got potential for being bad I think!

Very early days Jersey, these events are often months in the unfolding.

I am flying to USA on Fri for 2 weeks, could you all please use thought power to either make it go before then or hang on till afterwards please? What do you reckon?

Our family were stuck in Europe with the last ash cloud then DS trapped in NY by the hurricane, I don't think work will believe it if any of us are stranded anywhere else again!

Just bad in general. Maybe as in the ash and super cold winter. I don't know tbh

Stupid question alert!!!

So, the lava that's spewing up is molten rock, right? So if that rock is being sent up from beneath the crust, what is it replaced with? If the rock from underground is displaced to the surface, do we end up with huge caverns underground? Or what is left behind? Is there a danger of landslides to fill those spaces that are left because what was underground is now on the surface?

If those spaces are filled with more magma, then is there a perpetual source for this?

I keep trying to understand what's happening beneath the surface but it makes my head spin.

Stupid questions alert over!

Seriously though, is there an idiots guide to volcanoes?

It's late. Maybe I'm tired and I ought to go to sleep.

It depends on where the magma is coming from. So far the possibilities are:

Bardabunga - evidence is the earthquakes circling the caldera rim suggesting deflation.

Askja - some of the composition of the samples on Saturday had similarities to Askja so maybe it broke through.

mantle - the magma is very high in sulphur dioxide suggesting some mantle. This would occur through rifting/melt through by the dyke.

If it's mantle then this could be a very long and still potentially nasty rift eruption. If it's from the volcanoes then the source is more limited. However there is still potential for a small, or if the bardabunga caldera collapses (because the pressure gets too low in there due to being partially emptied) big eruption from bardabunga at some point.

My utterly amateur guesswork is that at present it is mostly from one or possibly both volcanoes with a little mantle intrusion.

Aw thanks OYBBK (about your 'thanks' yesterday) I'm going to get all
Newbie ~ I'm in a bit of a rush (got to do the school run) but this BBC guide might help answer some of your questions for the moment.