Eyjafjallajoekull volcano eruption - Hekla NOT erupting

[lurkey]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sryalI57oo[/youtube]

Incredible video of a jökulhlaup (volcanic induced flood by melting of a glacier) from the eruption beneath the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland.

Understanding the split personality of Iceland's volcanoes

http://geology.rockbandit.net/

[somethingfunny]

A few more pictures I've found:

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Thanks for those pictures and the video. The sine wave (smooth repetitive oscillation) illustration of periodic wave length was the best natural example I've ever seen. Incredible.

[jinftl]

Excerpts from Bloomberg article:


Volcanic eruptions may continue for months, curtailing European air traffic when the ash reaches the region, said Sigrun Hreinsdottir, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. “From what we’ve seen, it could erupt, pause for a few weeks, and then possibly erupt again.”

The last eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in December 1821 continued until January 1823. The current blast has sent ash to as high as 7 kilometers (4.5 miles), according to Gudrun Larsen, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland. The magma had to pierce 200 meters of ice before erupting, she said.

“We really don’t know if this eruption is going to last as long as the previous one, but we can’t say it’s not a possibility,” Larsen said by telephone.


“The problem here is we have magma interacting with glacier ice, and that leads to explosions,” Hreinsdottir said. “That causes the material to go much higher in the air.”

Mike Burton, a researcher at the Italian National Vulcanology Institute who has studied the ash from the latest explosion, said it presents more of a threat to aircraft than would the dust from a typical eruption.

“It’s likely that ash production will continue long after all the ice is melted in the volcano as this kind of magma can produce ash without water,” Burton said by telephone. “Fine ash is easier to transport long distances and goes higher into the atmosphere. This is not good news for flights.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... LsNg&pos=8

[HURAKAN]

Hekla Volcano Not Erupting; Journalists Fail to Fact-Check Again
April 19, 2010 02:58 PM EDT
© 2010 by Brenda Daverin
1 person recommends this Tags: news, hekla, hekla volcano, second volcanic eruption, hekla eruption, eyjaflallajokull, iceland volcano, hekla iceland, eyjaflallajokull iceland

Users of Twitter rocketed the Hekla volcano in Iceland to the top of the trending topics list this morning amid widespread claims it had started erupting. If this were indeed the case, it would only increase the problems being caused by the Eyjaflallajokull volcano's ash cloud spreading across Europe. Fortunately for Iceland and the rest of the world, this story turned out to have a far different cause for being. The webcam normally pointed at Hekla was instead targeting Eyjaflallajokull, entirely by accident.

The darker issue inside this particular story is how credulous the international media was about it. Twitter messages from people with no means of verifying the second eruption retweeted the original claim, and reporters saw this and moved to claim it was legitimate without checking with Iceland's geologists and volcano-watchers to make sure it was happening.

An old journalism philosophy can be roughly phrased, "If your mother says she loves you, follow up on it." The jump to conclusions about the Hekla volcano is part of what I have seen happening too often over time with news in this age of instant access to information. If someone says it happened, it's too easy to believe it's true, especially for those of us who grew up in a time when you could trust what reporters said because you knew they'd taken the time to double-check their information. When it's that easy to spread false rumors, it's really not that hard to check them out. The truth is often a simple search away.

[grentz7721]

How will this eruption affect the climate?

[HURAKAN]

How will this eruption affect the climate?

It's simply not big enough to have a noticeable effect on climate at this point.

[KWT]

Just thought I'd say another eruption is occuring and its starting to have an effect on some airspace again as well.

[Crostorm]

Eruption in Eyjafjallajökull - Status Report: 16:00 GMT, 03 May 2010
Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland

Compiled by: Sigurlaug Hjaltadóttir, Freysteinn Sigmundsson, Björn Oddsson, Sigrún Hreinsdóttir, Þórdís Högnadóttir.

Based on: IMO seismic monitoring; IES-IMO GPS monitoring; IMO hydrological data; web cameras of the eruption site from Vodafone; IMO weather radar measurements, MODIS satellit image; information from scientists at Gígjökull, information from the Icelandic Coast Guard flight.

Eruption plume:
Height (a.s.l.): Largest plumes observed at 5-5,5 km height (17-18,000 ft) estimated from the Icelandic Coast Guard (ICG) flight at 14:30. The plume has also been observed on IMO's weather radar at 4.0-5.2 km height between 13:00 and 15:00 GMT. The plume rises higher after large explosions.
Heading: East-south-east to south-east from the eruption site. Plume track clearly visible at least 200 km from the eruption site and probably another 200 further to the SE on MODIS (11:20 GMT) satellite imagery.
Colour: Observation from ICG-flight: Dark grey (ash) clouds observed over the eruptive site. White (steam) plumes rising from Gígjökull otulet glacier, north of the eruption site (similar as yesterday).
Tephra fallout: Moderate ash-fall reported in Álftaver, 65-70 km east-south-east of Eyjafjallajökull (07:00-10:00 GMT. An ash cloud also observed over village of Vík (10:00 GMT), 40 km south-east of Eyjafjallajökull.
Lightning: No detections today over the eruption site (16:00 GMT).
Noises: Scientists working at Gígjökull regularly hear explosions and booming sounds and feel the ground vibrate. The vibrations are not felt in 3-4 km distance.

Additional note: The scientists at Gígjökull experienced discomfort due to gas.

Meltwater: Today water temperature at the Markarfljot bridge was measured 11°C but about 3°C in a 2 km distance from Gígjökull. Water is flowing on both sides of the glacier and pulses of meltwater flow down the channels every 10 minutes or so (according to scientists at Gígjökull). Water level gauge at Gígjökull also records the pulses. Temperature measurements at Markarfljot bridge show a pulse of water temperature up to 17°C at 06:00 GMT this morning and another smaller pulse reaching about 15°C between 08:00 and 09:00. Water temperature has now dropped down below 4°C.

Conditions at eruption site: The eruption site was seen on a vido camera around noon (13:00 GMT). Dark ash clouds propagating eastwards. The lava is probably still propagating down Gígjökull producing more meltwater and steam.

Seismic tremor: Tremor levels intensified last night (2 May) and have remained high since. This intensification is seen in the frequency range 0,5-2 Hz but not above 2Hx (2-4 Hz).

Earthquakes: A few earthquakes occurred early this morning. They seem to be located at about 18 km depth just south of the eruption site.

GPS deformation: Horizontal displacement towards the center of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Vertical displacement at stations closest to the eruption site had indicated increased subsidence rate in the last few days but now the deformation is similar as before 29. April.

Other remarks: No measurable geophysical changes within the Katla volcano.

Overall assessment: The overall activity has not changed much since yeasterday (from the last report). Presently there are no indications that the eruption is about to end.

http://www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_Eyja ... l_eruption

[cycloneye]

The volcano has been very active in the past few days. Image from today of the ash plume.



And look at image from this morning how active it is.

[cycloneye]

The latest ash plume directions.