Icelandic 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 driven by steam explosions - melting ice and groundwater mixing with emerging lave. Draining the incipient caldera lake reduces the opportunity for further explosions, somewhat, for now.
There is still plenty of ice up there, and groundwater, and the magma is moving and the craters and fissures within the calders may be lengthening and coalescing.
But, the immediate effect ought to be for the eruption to transition to a more photogenic lava fountain...
Once the ash ejection stops, it should clear out of most of the atmosphere in a couple of days, depending on weather - hope for rain.
But, this could change, there are more water reservoirs, up there, and, the current magma is more viscous than expected - higher silica content - this is probably due to mixing of old rock from the 1821 eruption with the new melt, but the viscous lava can entrain more gas, and cause explosive eruptions without ground or melt water injection.
So it could blow its top again, a few times.
For reference, the 1821-1823 eruption had phreatic ash explosions for about a week, then simmered for some months, belched again a bit before tapering off.
As always, the real question is what big bad sister Katla is doing - that is the big volcano under the adjacent, bigger, glacier. Katla can do Real Volcanic Eruptions, and is historically bad tempered, but quite predictable, erupting approximately once ever 50 years. The last eruption was in 1918.
It erupted immediately after Eyjafjallajökull in 1823, and may also have done so in the ~ 1620 eruption and possibly on other occasions.
Oh and it is pronounced Eyja-fjalla-jökull.
Icelandic is phonetic, mostly.
You just have to know which sound is assigned to which vowel - we have more than twice as many as english.
Simple really. Word is compound, and has regular declensions.
All clear?
PS: There is no "C" in Icelandic - so be careful if you demand "Cash, NOW" from us.
In completely unrelated news, Icelandair has announced "sod it" - they're flying monday.
Looks like they'll take northern routes - did a flight to Trondheim today.
And, coincidentally, exporters of high priced fresh fish, sent by air, are grumbling that they'll have to freeze their prime fillets and stick them on ships, at half-prize.
So time to stop, I guess.
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What, you reckon the "c" in "cash" is silent in Iceland so you sent us ash instead?
Kronur, ash, there's not as much difference between them as there used to be, neither has much value!
I liked the suggestion of declaring April 15th (or whatever you consider to be the start of Eyjafjallajokull's eruption proper) to be National Throw A Banker In A Volcano Day.
OK, maybe you couldn't sacrifice flesh-and-blood bankers every year - but in this instance you could learn from the Brits (hold your nose and listen!). On November 5th each year, people burn effigies of a chap called Guy Fawkes who was part of a gang who tried to set a bomb under Parliament.
Make effigies of bankers, chuck them in volcanoes, drink a beer or two, and life will seem better. And it would perk up the tourist trade!
Aldakalda has a nice T-Shirt with the right pronunciation for furriners: Aye-ya Fyah-dla jow-kudl (http://bit.ly/9CRJOI)
Aha! My problem with the pronunciation was exactly that I didn't know how all those js were supposed to sound. Not that I expect my current attempts sound much like Icelandic, but at least I have something to say.
As for vowels, English has lots, we just write them all with only five letters, forcing readers to guess what they're supposed to sound like. See "ghoti".
Assuming the pronunciation is fairly similar to German works to some degree, though you have to note that the combination "ll" has its own rules. Then again I still get tongue-tied unless I say it really slowly...