Eyjafjallajökull update for 5/2/2010

two cars can be seen at the bottom of the left image:

http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…

they are stamding on the dark island in between the streams. In the sequence of images I have been downloading one can see them going back and forth, driving through the creeks.

The link to the Icelandic news is broken, as it has "br" in it for some reason, remove that and close the space and it should work fine.

The harmonic tremor increase also shows up on my helicorder, even if there currently is some wind in the area that creates noise on my geophone measurements.

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/tremoren.htm

might tremor rise have something to do with subsidence collapses in magma chamber?? don't know enough to ask the right question...

According to Icelandic news on Rúv the harmonic tremors now are more then in the beginning of the eruption.

www.ruv.is/frett/meiri-virkni-nu-en-i-upphafi-goss

Google translation.

translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=is&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ruv.is%2Ffrett%2Fmeiri-virkni-nu-en-i-upphafi-goss&sl=is&tl=en

Thanks for catching that Jón, I have fixed the link ...

Smoke ring captured on wep camera Vodafone yesterday.
http://image30.webshots.com/31/7/58/10/244275810uqNuyG_fs.jpg
Dagur Bragason Iceland

Sorry correct URL here: http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
Dagur Bragason Iceland

@ Dagur #6

I get a 403 - forbidden error when I try to access that image, at what time was the smoke ring visible?

a very different view of the glacier for comparison - scroll down in article...
www.scientificblogging.com/chatter_box/eyjafjallajökull_g%C3%ADgjökull_jökulhlaup_gosmökkur

@ #1 Philipp

Jesus christ i didn't realise just how big those streams were, there more like lakes!

@9: Impressive... the glacier is hardly recognizable anymore.

@1 Philipp And I though I had a grasp of the size. I was wrong. I now understand the enormous sizes involved here. Thanks for that capture.

"However, there are so far no suggestions that the nature of the eruption has changed over the last eught days."

Erik, you misspelled "eight".

Umm is it just me...or is that a seriously dumb place to try and drive cars?

It looks like today will be a day of great changes. In just the past hour I have seen a new crack form along the middle right hand side of the glacier tongue (in the middle of the Thoro cam view) and now it is steaming as well. The opening at the bottom right seems to be collapsing, and I thought I saw wisps of steam towards the left, just above the vertical face.

Now if Mother Nature would just cooperate a little bit, and clear those clouds out of there, lol I imagine all that steam and ash are creating it's own weather there.

Opps! I didn't realize there was another thread started. :-) Oh well... I posted this on the thread of anniverseries:

Back to Eyjaf (can't keep my eyes off of it, LOL), I have noticed that water is emerging from the bottom of the what I would call the "silt, ash, glob, pond. I have seen this happen on a huge mound of what you would call a hill and the top was very dry, but where the river was, water was just streaming out from under this pile of rock, gravel, and dirt. It was a sight to see that as I had no idea water would flood out from under a hill!

So any comments on that and the increase in tremor would be welcome. I do have a bit of a problem when I go to a site that is posted as a Google translation. Nothing comes up. Is there a way I can do something about that?

The links to RUV in the update are both without the protocol identifier (the http:// thing), so they look like links within the blog.

@ Philipp #8
The Smoke ring was captured from 16.10 to 16.16 GMT. 01.05.2010 on the Vodafone web camera: http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…
I got this also on my camera:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=855532&l=ec9c3c05db&id=1657071051

#14: Not cars, Scott. Muscle jeeps. Rescue units use them a lot up here, usually painted white, like these two were.

Scott (#14) This is a restricted area. But a team of geo-scientists went to take a look at GÃgjökull yesterday, perhaps it's their jeeps we're looking at (Philipp: Is this screen capture from yesterday?)

any hope of getting the voda cams to upload to picasa for today?

Well, I would take my old Jeep Wrangler there in a heart beat. ;)

@1 Philipp Surely you aren't refering to i39.tinypic.com/qsjqjt.jpg

:D

Philipp's screen capture is from today at 3:51pm GMT

Anna, I figured it would be some geologists and others that were checking on the flood there. I didn't see the cars, but I know it is a major flood of not only water, but a lot of mud and a lot of the water is seeping out under the mud.

It would not be an area anyone would want to be in! Thanks for clarifying the issue of jeeps there.

I did see a large movement on the cam just below that ice about half way down and I figured there was a good sized flow coming. I will have to get back to the cam...if I can see anything.

#22: Oh, those Jeepers! ;-)

Aside: Try to google for '"arsol landi"'. You should get back a reference to a rescue unit vehicle, a somewhat hunky Land Rover diesel.

Is that a hole in the glacier front ? There seems to be steam coming from it that wasn't there earlier

@Erik, The link on the update is broken. It has scienceblogs.com/eruptions/ in front, where it should only be the original link. When people click on that link, they go fast nowhere on the internet.

Too bad it is cloudy at the moment. There must be something interesting going on now at the top in Eyjafjallajökull.

regarding the cars: yes it would be really stupid to drive a "car" up the Ãorsmórk valley! But the vehicles in the image are more likely so called super-jeeps which can not only be used do drive across glaciers but also through rivers. The lack of bridges in the highland of iceland makes it necessary to customize 4WD vehicles to be able to use them, this is a typical vehicle of the Icelandic Björgungsarveit.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_CeTKUI7gs3E/S92y7ludGKI/AAAAAAAAQ6M/u60hv5nWLGw/s…

take note of the big tires, the custom suspension, the snorkel and the number of antennas for CB and satellite telephone.

During summertime a scheduled bus drives that road (albeit it is a 4WD bus on a truck chassis).

If you ever visit this area make sure to see the photo-album in the Langidalur hut where they keep a diary of all the cars, trucks and busses that didn't make it through the Krossa river and had to be rescued.

I have fallen strangely in love with this volcano which has provided some stunningly beautiful images over the past few weeks. It is almost a living work of art

"Philipp's screen capture is from today at 3:51pm GMT"

Either scientists or a team from 60 Minutes :)

Both UPDATE links have been fixed now!

@ 23 Raving, yes I am

just search for "Iceland Superjeep" on youtube and will be able to see what these vehicles are used for.

#33: Oh, well.. There goes a blog reader lost for the next hour or two.

Somebody said that the glacier tongue is about 180 meters wide; using that as a measure stick, the bisected "stone" is about 250 meters high, and the exit hole sixty meters in diameter. Very inaccurate measuring, so if you use yards where I used meters, the numbers are well within the error in measuring.

Big, eh?

Ok, so magic jeeps...doesn't change anything. Over the years I have seen bigger vehicles including trucks washed away in flash floods. 45cm - 18" of fast flowing water on gravel has killed plenty of people - and obviously will kill plenty more.

Technically the wheels get washed out on the upstream side and they end up tipping over.

Actually you just need to watch those - worlds most amazing idiots being rescued tv shows to see examples. In my case I grew up between Australia and UK, and every time there was flooding or risks, and the warnings go out...don't try and drive through flood waters...

Well a few days later you end up recovering the bodies. A landcruiser troop carrier - no problem got the snorkel mate - 3 days later as part of SES we had to recover the bodies of 2 adults and 2 children in North Queensland. It happens every time.

When I was a boy at Holy Island in the UK, there used to be all bodies of wrecked cars where people thought they could beat the tide across the causeway... These days they at least recover the cars and remove the eyesore. The list goes on...

So after being there and seeing it on numerous occasions. I can think of no sensible reason to be driving out there. Even for a science team I would imagine a chopper would be the sensible option.

Could be just me though and maybe somehow driving in super jeeps across meltwater on volcanic gravel under a melting glacier is somehow ok.

Once the glacier is gone it will be easy to see how Eyjafjalla split apart at some indeterminate point in time and how little mountain there is where the split occurred.
(I know, guilty as chaged. I am like a dog with a bone on this one...)

Zander #27 are you referring to the dark blob thing on the ice? I am thinking that may be a hole now instead of a rock, but it is hard to tell. There is steam coming from it now so anybodies is as good as mine. I have been watching that "blob" for a while and it has moved from the right on that ice to the left and now it seems to have moved down a bit. If it is a rock, look for it to fall sometime. The ice, too, for that matter.

emilhannes.blog.is/users/03/emilhannes/img/gigjokull_619081.jpg

@Diane , yes there is steam venting from it, there id also a second hole slightly further up the glacier with steam also venting. Should see some collapses hopefully before dark.

#36: It is OK, for certain values of OK. You need at least two well-built tall jeeps, two drivers with years or decades of experience and good comms and self-rescue gear to be at least reasonably OK down there.

There's plenty of old jeepers, lots of bold jeepers, but very very few old, bold jeepers.

@37 Henrik

That circular patterned rock face couldn't be some ancient lava tube, could it? It seems as if GÃgjökull is a caused more by a collapsed lava tube than the end product of glacial erosion.

Don't know. Just asking.

i43.tinypic.com/syrnma.jpg

Ref for #42

Google maps terrain
static.panoramio.com/photos/original/13260384.jpg

a short time-lapse showing the cars (and people!) doing their thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HraIJIJghs

@ Dagur: I absolutely love the smoke ring, Eyjaf is sure full of surprises!

@ scott: I understand your reservations from the experiences you listed, but in Iceland people are doing it all the time. If you want to go to Thorsmörk you actually have to drive that road (you actually can take the bus!) and ford some rivers. I think it is mostly tourists with lesser cars and even less experience that become stuck in the rivers, but sometimes it happens also with bigger vehicles with experienced drives sometimes:

lh5.ggpht.com/_CeTKUI7gs3E/S927lCsfBoI/AAAAAAAAQ6w/FaFmRMHdskc/s800/IMG_0381.JPG

I have no problem with the jeeps, only driving them downstream of fast melting glacier which could create a surge at anytime.

Afterall isn't that what all of us around the world are sitting watching and waiting for...even me in Singapore where there is absolutely no chance of snow!

Re. The water - and lack of it. Didn't the Iceland met report say that the lead steam plume is actually hot water, and the second is from the lava flow?

Which would mean there is still a lot of water to come down.

And the other thing that confused me, was "30m from the crater lip". Can't remember the exact wording, but the other week I think they said 200m. So the level of lava has risen?

Although I might have mistaken that.

@Philipp but there are 3 cars! (those puny ants) :)

also fun when the tourists on those buses have to get out and help push.

I have a huge favour to ask! I have to go out for a while (maybe an hour) and the vodafone webcam is down so no pic archiving :(

If anything exciting happens (like if the meltwater tunnel roof caves in!) will someone take some screen captures :)

Thanks in advance!

Lava is falling!

Looks like more meltwater is gushing out - very warm water.

#45: In the end, the magic is in the driver, not the vehicle, hence the fate of the bloonies you described upstream.

@Raving (#42) I'm pretty convinced it is ice, not rock, but we shall soon see! Tell you what, I'll bet you an e-Beer on it! ;)

Haha! Well done, Raving (#43). I see I owe you an e-Beer!

Yes I agree. There seems to be a lot of vater flowing down at the moment.

I have been away from the computer for a bit and I see what looks like a huge boulder on the right side about halfway down on the mud flat. I don't remember seeing it there before so if anyone has an idea what it is, let me know. It could be a dirty junk of ice. This is facinating to watch what will happen next!

Phillip, thanks for that timelapse of the vehicules. That really put it in perspective! I knew it was no small puddle.

There's something that looks like an opening just on top of the split rock. The glacier face there sure got a steam wash...

An awsome description of the eruption from above:
http://vulkan.blog.is/blog/vulkan/entry/1050318/

(some parts may be not so easy to translate metaphor)

I'm seeing a lot of change, taking place quite fast, in the snout of the glacier; steaming holes, cracks, and melted recent snow cover. It wouldn't surprise me to see a significant collapse there in the not too distant future, and possibly even incandescence in the next 24 hours. Remember steam rises, and has to find a way uphill and upstream to an exit, so there may be hot rock further down under the ice than is evident from the surface...

Looks like a burst of warm or hot water right now.

tremors still on the upswing....hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

60 Minutes US to Air EYJ (commercial US TV site)

Once the EYJ story video is aired (do not have a date), then you'll be able to watch the video ONLINE from your computer for a brief period of time.

UK 22:00 hours on Channel 4. The Volcano That Stopped Britain
Documentary examining the background to the Icelandic eruption that caused extensive air-travel disruption across large parts of Europe in April, studying the geology of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the potential effects of ash on planes. The programme uncovers the true cost to the aviation industry and the economy in general, as well as considering the potential impact of further eruptions on the UK, Europe and the rest of the world
There is an 'on demand' site on the web too (usually a delay)

From what we've seen earlier this morning, the lava flow doesn't clearly show. But the stream looks pretty muddy and the clouds - o the clouds! - they don't let us see the huge amount of steam produced. Or, as someone said, the volcano is producing it's own weather system.

Steam from Vodafone second camera

I have a question for boris or erik or anyone who can answer this in a bit more than laymans terms. The glacier and volcano at Eyjaf is of course stunning, but i am interested in the flanks and how abrupt they are from the grade of the surrounding land.

Is this the way that this weathered out, harder rock just surviving the weathering or is there something unique to this because the sides are incredibly abrupt. If weathering has/had occurred wouldnt it have gotten most of it, or is it that the rock is so much more dense? I see this all over Iceland with so many sheer cliffs around their volcanoes.

Pretty view of boiling water cascading down Gigsjokulls glacier valley now..

@64 See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuya

Thanks for the kind comments Erik. I added a few more pictures from my trip yesterday to Eyjafjallajökull. The way things were going last night and with the steep slope the lava appears to be on now, things should be getting interesting in the near future. Seeing the volcano up close certainly beats a weekend of flooding back home in Tennessee.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49883902@N08/with/4570132526/

Góðan daginn!

In the middle of exciting events I'm disturbing you with amateur questions.

I read that last time Hekla erupted, they were able to tell in six o'clock news that it will erupt in 20 minutes. And it did erupt after 20 minutes.

I've been wondering how did the volcanologists know that? There must be something else than watching tremours and earthquakes?

Another question, do Icelandic volcanoes ever create violent pyroclastic flows? The flows of hot gas are devastating. Laki killed nearly a quarter of the island's population but that was mostly because of volcanic ash? What if Katla would erupt soon, could there be fatal pyroclastic flows? Just wondering how far would a big eruption reach in the first hand, made some friends during my last Iceland trip and they don't live far away from Katla.

Thank you for this blog, I'm passionate about nature and volcanoes and have read this blog every day during last months. Especially after my second Iceland-trip - planned for last month - was "ashed" this blog has given me great relief :)

@Reybi I think your hot bath is ready...

Does anyone have a clue about the type of lava flow that is issuing from the crater now?

Is it the same type (ropy lava to aa-type) as Fimmvörduhals, or is it a kind of blocky-lava/coulée-like viscous lava flow?

Could that thing collapse down Gigsjokull valley and give off block-and-ash flows, like at Arenal?

And is it possible that the lava flow interacting with the running water could cause phreatic activity, again like Fimmvorduhals?

Very nice work Woodson but... if I may be so bold, why don't you have higher resolutions up on flickr? Your highest is 1024 x 635, which looks a bit silly on my 2560 x 1440 display... virtually all cameras are capable of much higher resolution these days, and most people have the bandwidth to enjoy it.

And yes, that former pretty lake is now a bloody steaming mess!

@Woodson #67,

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. I'm very envious over here in California.

At least we have the webcams and get a glimmer of the action every once in a while (would that be called arm chair volcanology?).

Lots of steaming water on the alluvial fan now. It should affect the temperature readings further down in the river soon.

@69 that was supposed to be Reynir, sorry....

... kin'ell... ! Sorry, but this is the first time I've seen the runoff water from GÃgjökull actually steaming.

@ Essi 68: Hekla is normally aseismic; they have enough history to be fairly sure about that. Unlike Eyjafjallajökull, you never see months or weeks of tremor prior to a Hekla eruption; once the tremors start at Hekla the eruption follows in an hour or two. Laki killed so many by starvation; the ass was fluorine rich, the food animals died of fluorosis, and the people died of starvation.

@ Volcanophile 70: There was little phreatic activity at Fimmvörðuháls, the eruption was predominantly effusive with lava fountaining. The strong phreatic activity was in the initial phase of the summit eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. But I too would be interested to know if there's been any change in chemistry since the present phase began.

Jeepers the tremor chart has just gone insane. What's up? Too bad it is all in fog. The amplitude of the tremors is the same as for the peak of the eruption; there is a whale of energy in there.

It is especially interesting that the more distant sensors seem to be jumping as well as God.

Fireman (#57)

It will probably take the lava a couple of more days to reach the famous split boulder. This video was taken today and it gives a pretty clear idea of how things stand. (The RÃV website, you'll need a Windows Media Player, some other players will do too).

http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/4497980/2010/05/02/5/

#73: I think the whole lot of us could go bathing now.

If I remember correctly, when the actual eruption happened the 2-4Hz line (the blue line) shot up like a rocket, way above the other lines. Of course, I didn't keep a copy of it, nor can I find it now. :(

A few huts in the right places... instant onsen and sauna... *starry-eyed*

Hot mud bath anyone?!

You can find the historical plot here

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

There is quite a bit of interesting info if you poke around in the parent directory:

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009

What is interesting is that the green line on the ESK sensor is at about the instantanious point of the initial eruption -- but it is continuous.

@81, I heard this is healthy and makes beautiful skin ;-)

Yes, pretty hot stuff coming into the sluice pond, in gushes. Could the steam in upper parts act like a giant percolator?

@Essi...

Icelandic volcanoes can and do produce pyroclastic flows, provided the eruption is explosive enough..

Hekla is an excellent candidate for that, since its eruptions usually start with a massive plinian phase involving large volumes of highly fractionated magma (in 1947, it erupted about .18 km3 of andesitic pumice in about 6 hours, with a discharge rate of 75000 m3/sec and a plume height of 30km...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla#Initial_eruption

Should a column that big collapse, it's more than enough to create pyroclastic flows on a massive scale....

About Katla.... It's usually basaltic, but the eruptions are highly explosive because of the meltwater involved... it's in fact a beefed-up version of what happened there at Eyjaf during 14-16 April...

This could also create pyroclastic flows, since laterally-directed blasts can happen, and "wet" eruptions columns rich in steam are more dense and more prone to collapse (base surge)

Something like that, happened it the Azores during a submarine eruption in Capelinhos volcano island...

http://www.vulcaodoscapelinhos.org/_images/fotoserupcao/29-09-1957.jpg

The base surge is the steam "ring" expanding horizontally above the water level. Although not a "real" Péléan pyroclastic flow, it has the same destructive potential...

Basaltic volcanoes are also capable of producing small-scale pyroclastic flows on their own, if the erupting magma is gas-rich enough and if the mass-eruption rate is high..

Something like that happened at Stromboli in 1930
http://www.photovolcanica.com/VolcanoInfo/Stromboli/Stromboli.html

and at LLaima in 2008
(again with water involved)
http://www.povi.cl/llaima/images/my_1702108_a.jpg

Mebbe catch a few trout, too, and cook'em in the runoff?

Any idea how much ice is melting now?

Wow. The melt is now HUGE. I think the lava will break out in the next day or so

Last one in the hot tub's a rotten egg ;P

Now she's cooking on gas!

Last one in is not a rotten egg....They live if they don't go in.

Though I bet it smells like rotten egg.

Vodaphone is down for me.

Just checked the RUV site. The current estimate is that the lava has ca. 1km (ca. 0.6mi) to go before it breaks into free air.

tremors=boiling water???

melting ice + glowing lava = boiling water.

Lot's of hot stuff falling on the valley! On Ãórólfsfelli cam.

Is it possible that a new vent is opening below the glacier?

At low air-temperature and high humidity water may produce a lot of steam as you can see above lakes in winter. Surelly the water is not boiling,but comfortable for a bath.

Latest news in Iceland about the volcano. http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/05/02/gosvirkni_eykst_enn/

@93,96 I should have put : ) at the end...
Vodaphone, please, please, picasa tomorrow? have been without your cam or picasa almost all day.

Fantastic views on Vodaphone!

#98: No sweat. I forgot to add a semicolon-dash-thorn combo at the end of my #93 anyway.

That split boulder in the middle, that's tuff.

Seems to me it's disintegrating ...

This must be GÃgjökull is feeling...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiZdygKwe-8

Re 84 yes it could act as a percolator it just needs the geometry of the plumbing to be right it was acting like a percolator last week then it calmed down when the exit vent got eroded away
it could be made with spare plumbing things if one wanted to]

if nothing else by the end of the excitement I should have 'Ormurin Langi' memorized, all 86 verses...

most Tuff i have seen is fairly easy to erode especially if it is not a welded tuff but even that succumbs to moving water and faster if the water has a high load of abrasives in it

I think lava is reaching Markarfljót. Let's see what the coming night will show us.

# 41: "There's plenty of old jeepers, lots of bold jeepers, but very very few old, bold jeepers."
The same was said about test pilots.....some truths are universal. It occurs to me, before appointing people to really sensitive jobs -like nuclear plant managers- we should let them try driving landrovers in this type of terrain. :-)

Speaking of excessive boldness, a couple of weeks ago a Swedish tourist was killed by falling 150 m. into a crater in Indonesia, after going too near the edge. I do not know any details of the incident, but if the tourist was used to our 2-billion-year old Swedish granite he might have overestimated the strength of the material he was stepping on.
What are the inner volcanic crater walls usually built of? Is it successive layers of lava and ash, or is it ash all the way, with just a smattering of lava blobs thrown in? I realise the ash and the lava ultimately are made from the same substance, but a wide chunk of lava that has slowly solidified must be way safer to step on than ash.

#104 One prolly should not translate that as 'Long Schlong'? ;)

program on eyjaf on channel 4 uk now.... Not sure if other countries can get it on 4on demand. 'the volcano that stopped britain'

@108 www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSD0vRFhloI&feature=related
ref. background music for eruption video (different singers,) posted several days ago

Looks like a four-by group is returning from the glacier.

Going to interesting to see what dark brings. Where will it glow tonight?

There are now three 4x4s parked on the road upstream of the alluvial fan - with the occupants taking a stroll for a better view. Certainly a very popular restricted area ...

Like the ones observed earlier these will have crossed Markarfljót and Krossá (probably separately) and then Steinsholtsá - all of which should be reasonably easy at this time of year.

Hvolsvelli is showing a large black plume clawing it's way up to 20k feet

21.40 GMT. Eruption column very broad at the base albeit not very high(?) looking through a gap in the clouds on the Hvolsvelli cam. Looks as if more than one vent may be active.

The link in #97 - go to it and there's a plot of the tremor from the beginning of the current eruption - today. Very interesting to look at! It is perplexing that the eruption, which has gone on for 2½ weeks now, seems to be gaining in strength even if the amount of magma that makes it to the surface isn't that much. Erik, Boris, EKoh, Gijs, Heidi or any other professional?

Yech. It's totally hippsumhapps if you get served by the Vodafone cams or not. The server has to be getting a lot of clamouring from impatient web browsers.

@116 Reynir I'm guessing hippsumhapps is an Icelandic term? lol I gave up on Vodaphone cam, rather not try than to keep getting frustrated.

22.15 GMT front of the lava flow now visible in Thorolfsfelli cam.

Is it me, or did a rather large orange glow suddenly appear at the vent?

eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/

Wasn't there a minute or two ago, and looks a bit bigger than the normal night-time glows.

#119: It's not just you.

#119: yes very large glow visible now @ http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/

Wow.....I go to the beach and when I get back everything has changed.

Looks like an advancing lava flow.

It's getting pretty impressive now. Is this a camera-doesn't-lie-but-it-does-fib moment when it looks more substantial than it is? But this doesn't look like the normal night-time cloud of glowing steam to me - it looks far larger...

Could it be:

The lava flow has finally evaporated all the ice on top of it and is now illuminating the steam?

or

Current vent has expanded into view of the camera?

Or

A new vent has opened up?

or

Small pixies with brushes loaded with orange paint are vandelising the web cam?

Amazing, this magma seems to pour directly onto Gigjökull now.
Massive steam at the top and it is triggering kind of jökulhlaup at the bottom.

This looks bigger then lava flow. But it might be lava but it is glow is just fooling us. Hard to know for now. The harmonic tremor levels have dropped a little over the past few hours, but the still remain high at this moment.

Thorolfsfelli is amazing right now. Looks like the fire fountain source is this side of the hillather than in the caldera.

Looks to me like some direct but mostly reflected glow.

Massive overexposure where the light is strongest. Yep, it'll take a lot of squinting to tell which witch is which.

Yeah with lots of steaming water coming down and making it to the valley floor....they better evacuate downstream...Looks like Erik is going to need to do another blog update.

Looked like the bright yellow glow was moving towards Thorolfsfelli camera. I was expecting to see the Icelandic answer to Niagara falls, but with molten lava.

However, it could be also a reflection of a new or enlarged vent in the steam clouds.

Hope that a Icelandic TV network dispatchs a camera team -HDTV would be icing on the cake- to Thorolfsfelli.

Regards from Volcanic-sleeping Spain!

That glow on the http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/ camera is slowly growing as we watch, and I'm seeing what appears to be occasional bursts or reflections of red from below some of the mid-glacier steam plumes. Is it a trick of the fading light, or actual lava flow?

Thats steam reflected glow of lava deeper in the crater. The positioning of the Porosfelli cam is such that it can not see the crater floor. The Mila cams have better low light sensitivity than the Vodafone ones (which dont see much right now). I think the reason it is brighter is that there is more lava flow in the crater and the area of glacial melt is much larger and has been progressively moving away from the vent towards the camera.

No worries about evacuation. Nobody lives downstream although they might need to breach Rt 1 again.

Really too bad that the cameras that MÃla has have to be reset by a lineman's hand.

I'm voting for actual lava flow on the Thorolfsfelli cam.

I'm not sure that this is just glow from the original crater, as that showed up much further to the right than this current event. It appeared very rapidly, over the course of about 10 - 15 minutes, and seems not to be moving downhill, although there are occasional glows left-and-down-a-bit (that's technical language if ever I saw some!).

Clouds. Why did it have to be clouds?

#135: As am I.

#135, #138 me too

Picassa gallery is now uploaded

There are two distinct glows: the main one, and other, intermittent, lower, and to the left. It's possible that the second glow is not a reflection.

Ahh... so that's probably why folk reported green glow from Thora--the cam's control circuits can't deal well with light at this level.

#135, 138, 139

Me three.. :)

Before it got too dark, there seemed to be a dark inverted triangle (possibly a rock) just below the largest glowing area. It looked like the lava was flowing down to, and around the rock, emerging on the left hand side.

I'm hoping we'll get to see a little more before bedtime ... I've got about 3 hours left :)

http://s878.photobucket.com/albums/ab348/Reynir_Heidberg/Gigjokull%20_e…

This album should be ready soon. Captures from Thora between 22:31 UT and 23:08 UT.

Looks like the pix are all there.

According to the news, they now believe that the lava has started to flow close the edge of the glacier.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/05/02/hraunid_rennur_fram/

the image is clear; the glow is quite bright and very yellow/green

Translation of text linked in #147

"Visual Witnesses who I spoke to a few minutes to consider the lava is starting to slide out the ice bar," said Atli Olafsson policeman tracks in an interview with news newspaper, mbl.is. Red bjarmi seen by GÃgjökul and is even believed that the lava is starting to run out there.

Significant force in the eruption and scientists believe that considering the status of the Mac years of steam rising from the lava as it meets the periphery of the ice has today been in the 850 meters at GÃgjökli, about 3 km north of gigs. Gufumekkir from ice at the edge. 19:40 indicated that the lava even go beyond that rhymes with now seen lighting the twelfth time.

"The glacier, which flows from GÃgjökli is boiling hot and steaming rýkur much of it," said Atli Olafsson who was on patrol in the area earlier in the evening.

It is difficult to assess the lava flow of the glacier, according to earth scientists. Rough guess of the lava flow is 20 meters per second and is evaluated based on the length and width of the lava current GÃgjökli in one hand and the flow of water, however.

Ash eruption is thought to be much lower, 10 to 20 tons per second. The explosive activity has also increased in recent days, but is uncertain whether the lava flow has increased. There is no evidence gosloka.

End translation.

So... Icelandic Mustafar tonight or tomorrow?

"Rough guess of the lava flow is 20 meters per second"

What utter nonsense.

They're probably talking about 20 tonnes per second (coming out of the crater).

It should be noted that the translation was done using Google. Perhaps in Icelandic the cubic in cubic meter tends to be omitted. Dunno.

Sunday, Google translations are largely nonsense (when it comes to Icelandic, that is) but it actually says 20m/sec in the original.

I guess it should mean 20 cubicmeters per second. Which would be consistent with the estimates from the volcanologists.

Well, I can't see anything on the cams. Is it a case of wait for some glow or have the clouds done us in?

all the tremors seem to be coming down now - as of about the time the hot/warm/steaming water broke out.

This is a nice set of photos from just south of Eyjafjallajökull:
www.flickr.com/photos/leifi/4527422779/in/set-72157623874162612/

Lava has been reported to travel as fast as 100 km/h, though it is unusual:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_flow#Hazards

Hope some of the US people got to catch the NatGeo episode tonight. Not sure if it was the first one aired, but they had some great images and good coverage of the Volcano and the flooding downstream.

All of the MÃla cams seem to be down at the moment. What is all that weirdness on the Hvolsvelli camera, did the lens crack?

@Jen, They are not down. It is just darkness. But there should be dawn in less then hour from now or so. The web camera that is showing Hvolsvoll is just reflecting the floodlights.

Currently the harmonic tremors have started to increase again, for some strange reason.

Melissa #158 I saw a NatGeo film last night that showed how the guys got stuck and they did get some very good info and it was a pretty good program. Is that the one you are referring to? I know there is going to be another one that covers the eruption a bit differently so I would like to know the one you are referring to.

Thanks.

Jón has the right idea; you're all spoiled with these webcams! Real geologists watch volcanoes erupt by looking at wiggly lines :-)

I'm offline for 24 hours - off to Pittsburgh to buy a car - so have fun and hope I don't miss much! Then, with luck, back to Iceland next week - and I promise to take a thermal imager!

Melissa, I forgot to mention the name of the program was Naked Science, I think.

Jen, #159, the weird figures you see on the Hvol cam are due to the lights as Jon said. They are called "circles of confusion" in photography. I did some photog and I got some pretty weird figures that I processed. I did it on purpose, though some people get them and don't know it until the film is develped. Digital cams have taken away a lot of that problem because you can see the pic on the screen before you take it. Makes for some interesting pic sometimes. :-)

Currently there is almost no wind at all (0.4 m/s). But my helicorder is getting a bit crazy it seems. That is in fact the harmonic tremor from the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/tremoren.htm

Wow ,Jon. It certainly is going crazy. Do you have any idea what it means? I guess it is hard to say what is going on when you can't see anything! Not fun, but maybe in about an hour we will be able to see what is going on and, hopefully, there will be good visibility.

Thank you for posting that.

Interesting article: http://www.physorg.com/news191397828.html

Scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast

"They paved paradise and, it turns out, actually did put up a parking lot. A big one. Some 700 feet deep in the waters off California's jewel of a coastal resort, Santa Barbara, sits a group of football-field-sized asphalt domes unlike any other underwater features known to exist.

About 35,000 years ago, a series of apparent undersea volcanoes deposited massive flows of petroleum 10 miles offshore. The deposits hardened into domes that were discovered recently by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and UC Santa Barbara (UCSB)."

@Diane, All that I know is that this means that the eruption is getting more powerful as the tremor increases. So far, this spike looks bad on my sensor, but it also appeared on IMO sensors and even better there then on my sensor.

This is not good. But what it means is hard to know at the moment.

good night all,let's hope that whatever is brewing is interesting but not bad news for Iceland.

Is that daylight showing the plume (or just clouds)on Katla cam? http://www.ruv.is/katla/
And I don't know if the light that keeps appearing to the upper left of the screen is our volcano's eruption.

[pin drop]

Twilight.

Hvolsvelli webcam is getting lighter now

@169 Renato I think it's all clouds being brightened up by the dawn.

@ Dan
Heavy clouds, huh?
How about the situation at the Gulf, Dan?

Seems very dense cloud/fog - all cams usually have outlines by now

US Nature: Public Broadcasting
Kilauea: Mountain of Fire Hawaii

Watch the Video Online for this Show
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/kilauea-mountain-of-fire/video-…

@Renato Ãórólfsfelli and Valahnúk both still coal black. Hvolsvelli has a solid blue/black background and Mulakot still too dark to tell. But I think this may not start off as a good viewing morning there.

The oil keeps changing where it is going, Winds, waves and tides have them guessing where it will go. Still nothing has worked to stop the leak. Booms that have been set out all over the coast are being pushed around hard by heavy surf and seas. In other words, we are still clueless about what the effects are going to be.

From the Múlakot cam, it looks like a layer of clouds right around the snow line.

@Helen 167. It doesn't surprise me that there are domes of gunk off of Santa Barbara. I spent a summer there, and every day after the beach I had to clean globs of crude oil off my feet. SB has naturally occurring oil spills. But, nothing on the scale of Alaska or Gulf Coast.

Er det noen her? Må vi skriver på engelsk her? Jeg bor i Florida.

High harmonic tremor accompanied by deflation of the volcano suggests to me that the eruption rate has increased.

Personlig, jeg bor i Canada. God kveld

Mike, to which volcano are your referring? I hope not Katla. Does anyone have any current info on it. Between the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the situation in Iceland, we should be very busy passing information. All good, I hope.

Made me use Google translator eh? LOL

hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/gola_enu_p.png
hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/oroi_snb.html

:-|

Helen 167, sounds like knock-offs from the La Brae Tar Pits. I bet the same type of thing created them as the asphalt off the coast. They get asphalt on the shores of the Dead Sea all the time and they don't know what to do with it. I bet at one time, the asphalt was on land.

Well, fiddle. Everything seems fogged in, or vogged in as the case may be. I hope it will clear up later so we an see something.

It is time for me to turn in so keep watching. Maybe you will see what I want to see and have to miss until morning. :-)

HA, I know Dan from another site. Very informative person and well traveled. Provides many of us good information. The volcano has fascinated many people in the United States, unfamiliar with the history of Iceland. It has become a thing to do at some gatherings to see who comes closest in the pronunciation of the names. Is there any indication of further activity in any others? (God kveld, Raving)

#176
Dan, I heard there's a possibility that the leak will be driven to the ocean by winds and currents so it may decay far from the coast. I hope it may.
#179 Det er mange mennesker fra Florida her. You may speak English.

Well i think I'll just go to bed and come back to see if the clouds will be gone by then. Bons sonhos!

@187 Renato Three days ago they said it would be on ours shores at the Alabama Florida state line. Yesterday they said maybe Wednesday, now they say north wind will push it out. I don't think THEY have any idea right now. It moves however it feels regardless of winds and waves.

Hey Grothar. Katla so far remains quiet. We have been watching Eyjafjallajökull, although apparently not tonight with the cloud cover.

Well we can now see what Eyjafjallajökull has spent the night doing... boiling water!

"...Isengard looked like a huge flat saucepan all steaming and bubbling..."

Meltwater looks about the same as yesterday, maybe a touch lower.

- Get ready for decades of Icelandic fireworks... Undersea volcano threatens southern Italy: report... Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision - Planet X, Volcanoes activation and their eruption, 3600 years ago... ECOLOGICAL EVIDENCE from Previous PLANET X Passages... NASA: Sun's Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests... NewScientist: 'Dark sun' is one of our nearest neighbours... National Geographic (November 19, 2008): "MYSTERIOUS ASTROPHYSICAL OBJECT that's bombarding Earth with cosmic rays, researchers say":
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2010/04/get-ready-for-decades-of-…

Eyjafjallajökull time lapse 5 May 2010 4.00am to 4.28pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yel6QwHQAr4

Images from webcam http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

tnks

@d9trotterdam: thanks.

After a relative quiet period there was a series of 5 EQs again at different depths:
en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/#view=table

#193 At hi res and full screen it's easy to see how the are above split rock deforms: it sinks, break lines appear in a big circle, new steam holes open... Apparently, watching a volcano cook is like watching the grass grow - time lapse gives a much better idea.

There were 2 earthquakes reported in the area this morning.
Monday 03.05.2010 05:09:49 63.620 -19.605 18.0 km 1.6 90.01 8.8 km SW of Básar
Monday 03.05.2010 05:09:48 63.657 -19.626 1.1 km 1.8 34.97 7.5 km WSW of Básar

I'm sorry, I'm still half asleep, 5 earthquakes in the area.
Monday 03.05.2010 05:09:49 63.620 -19.605 18.0 km 1.6 90.01 8.8 km SW of Básar
Monday 03.05.2010 05:09:48 63.657 -19.626 1.1 km 1.8 34.97 7.5 km WSW of Básar
Monday 03.05.2010 05:05:59 63.648 -19.618 2.7 km 1.9 90.01 7.5 km WSW of Básar
Monday 03.05.2010 05:03:26 63.630 -19.566 17.1 km 1.9 85.98 6.7 km SW of Básar
Monday 03.05.2010 04:59:18 63.642 -19.602 18.5 km 1.8 90.01 7.1 km WSW of Básar

Re #198: Yep. See hraun.vedur.is/ja/skjalftar/myrjokull.html

The fact that 3 out of 5 EQ´s is at 17-18km depth can that be an indication of yet another magmachamber beeing restless? Or can it be the one feeding the volcano from the beginning?

Thorolsfelli and Vodaphone webcams are clearing up a bit at the moment.

And those 5 earthquakes run right down the glacier flow.
Could the change in the glacier's weight have disrupted
some magma chamber below?
And i hate being right... remember when i said:
"When something happens at a volcano, that's when You
can't see it?"
nuts....
i hope the weather clears soon.
my daughter said i may have to undergo separation anxiety
sessions when this volcano gets done.
snif,snif.
Best!motsfo

@motsfo (202)
I don't think glacier melt can trigger EQs in such depths, max 0,5km, but perhaps this is also exaggarated.
Viktor

For those interested the Channel 4 program 'The Volcano that Stopped Britain' is available on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHsHxPW_T9Q. For those in the know about volcano's it is probably very simple stuff, but there are some very spectacular shots of the volcano erupting. The narrator can also pronounce the name which is even more impressive :).

Many Volcano webcams from the world....
http://www.abcwebcam.net/keyword-webcam-volcano.html

#204 Youtube says the program has been blocked do to copyrights... Thank you anyway.
And all those clouds...

I don't know if anybody noticed, but the number of earthquakes detected in that short period of time has been increased to six:

03.05.201005:09:4963,620-19,60518,0 km1,690,018,8 km SV af Básum
03.05.201005:09:4863,657-19,6261,1 km1,834,977,5 km VSV af Básum
03.05.201005:05:5963,648-19,6182,7 km1,990,017,5 km VSV af Básum
03.05.201005:03:2663,630-19,56617,1 km1,985,986,7 km SV af Básum
03.05.201004:59:1863,633-19,61515,8 km1,799,08,2 km SV af Básum
03.05.201004:58:0563,631-19,61415,7 km1,899,08,3 km SV af Básum

Whats interesting here, that some of these quakes happen really deep. I would like to here an interpretation of this by someone who has knowledge in this field.

@renato #205 The video is the official Channel 4 'On Demand' YouTube channel, so it might be blocked to people outside the UK.

My question is: How deep is the magma chamber that's supposed to feed both Eyjaf and Katla, if that should be the case?

@motsfo (202) I get hints from my partner that he thinks I´m too interested (read: struck) in this volcano. I can´t help it, I just think it´s amazing.

He actually asked me yesterday after one day away if I had "Volcano abstinence" when I took the laptop with me in bed. :)

Now if some vulcanologist could give us a theory whats behind the tremors and what these EQ:s means. Is the plate separation going right through Eyjafjall? Is it therefore it´s so high, just next to the lowlands? (I have lived in the lowlands between Hvolsvellir and the sea, they are purely ashmade I think, no rocks or at least very few.

@Suw Yes, that's what they say. :(
I'm going to work now. Something is going to happen - that's what she always does when we are away. Like a little child. You turn your back, and there she goes. Just ask you folks to keep the nice pics for later.

Can any Icelanders tell me when or if the weather is going to clear ?

I'm not an icelander, but you might want to take a look at this page: http://www.vedur.is/vedur/spar/stadaspar

Re: the Channel 4 documentary "The volcano that stopped Britain", I found a site where this can be downloaded (I don't know how long it will last so I'd say hurry up)

www.dedicatedtv.net/downloads/uncategorized-s784/the-volcano-that-stopp…

@Mr.Moho, #213: You can look here for the forecast: http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/areas/

@ 213 thanks man, it doesn't look to promising.

Well, from what I can barely make out on the vodafone cam, it looks like not much has changed since last night. There's still steam coming out of the main chute, but the water doesn't appear to be 'boiling' like it was yesterday. I don't know if we'd see that with all the vog or not, but I don't think it is.

If anyone here, knows anybody with clout, can you please tell them it's supposed to be summer in Iceland, and could they please turn the sun on :)

@193 thanks for the video, was without voda yesterday,that's a big help

At the moment it is hard to say when it is going to clear up. The forecast looks pretty cloudy. I would say that it is unlikely with any good views today, with a bit of luck there might be some, probably quite short, moments with good views tomorrow or on wednesday.

@Boris: Thanks for the link.

Masses amounts of water currently being ejected on Voda cam

@Renato I Silveira (209):

Regarding that I found this, but it might probably not explain the origin of the last 17-18 Km deep earthquakes:

http://www2.hi.is/myndir/1016292?11434

Looks like someone's up to have a look on the vodafone cam.

It is probably hard for anyone to guess the exact reason for those earthquake. But I guess it could be possible with some movement of magma on deep levels. We have to keep our eyes open for more of those deep EQ:s. I wonder if it is possible that a possible magma body at 15-20km could feed both Eyjafjallajökull and Katla? It is probably impossible to be sure on the answer to that question so I just post it as a reflection.

the vision from vodafone is bright enough i think maybe LAVA find a another path maybe a cave or a chamber

butfor me there is no magma on the top of the fall anymore

There was a small debris collapse into the lake just now, visible on Vodafone cam.

Been listening to radio news on Bylgjan. Estimated 50 tn of lava per second now.

Clear spot on Thorolfsfell cam

I see 2 Vent of black fume on the top do you see ?

Hum... Black plume from the crater, white plume from the lava?

Wow. Nice view on vodafone cam to. The plume looks quite large now.

#229 Only a illusion. There was a time when seemed to be two black plumes, but only because clouds hid the lower part of the unique black plume

Since we won't see any fire glow until tonight, we'll have to look for side effects, like the glacier collapsing into itself to see where the lava stream is already. Oh fun.

Wow ! She seems pretty angry today. I wonder what's in store.

@jp225 I think what you saw yesterday was a trick of light and steam, I watched it for a long time.

I found a collection of 160 beautiful volcano photos at mbl.is. Some of them have already been seen before but it is great to have them at the same place. http://www.mbl.is/myndasafn/safn/1660/

am i right in seeing steam to the right of the main outlet, or is it a trick of light following the top curve of the 'big rock?'

@237, definitely. There is a lot of water running off the mountain to the right of the main outlet and further up is a lot of steamage.Maybe the lava is finding another way down the far right of the glacier.

The lava has to be taking the easiest route, the one that the meltwater carved.

I would agree with post #210. It would be nice to have a proffessional point of view as to what these EQ´s could mean.

It has been upgraded to 8 events whereof 7 of them was at a depth of 14km or more. Seems something is stirring down there and if the depth is accurate wouldnt that mean that even a "small" 1.6-1.9 magnitude EQ would be quite large if it would occur closer to the surface? Or is the magnitude calculated in such a way that it is already compensated for depth and so on?

now those of you who still have voda (grrr) will have to give details, milu is very hard to see

Vodafone cams showing a large white plume and also lots of meltwater coming out of split boulder into lake

See now http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en and http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-fimmvorduhalsi/.

The large black plume is the same as before, or is it a new vent? It seems further on the right.

A crosscheck with the apron cam in Múlakot makes it look like that most of the steam comes from one spot.

Looking through the Ãórólfsfelli cam - I think Paolo may be right. There does look like a very vigorous ash plume to the right which is not continuous - it has a huge spurt every know and then - the main vent keeps a fairly steady output. But in my opinion activity has definitely increased in the last hour or so.

Uh-oh, it looks like more trouble for airline companies...

ref. earthquakes. I can't find the post but I think it was Jón F. who said that the raw data is manually corrected so what shows at first may be later removed...

That is one mutha of an ash plume on the Vodafone cam at the moment.

Icelandic Meteorological experts have recommended flow and take samples of Markarfljót of floods that regularly come before GÃgjökli because melting water from the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. Water Thermometer with Markarfljót old bridge and this morning the water temperature was measured to be about 17 ° C.
from this morning's news, poor translation from net...
Much steam and ash Mocha is still evident in Eyjafjallajökull.

Gosórói rose yesterday. The increase may be due to the interaction of ice and lava GÃgjökli or change in gosrás. No earthquakes measured by Eyjafell yesterday. There is no evidence gosloka.

Explosive eruption (ash production) but has increased in recent days and the flow of ash from the crater estimated at 10-20 tons / s. It is harder to assess changes in the lava flow and is therefore not known whether it has increased.

The black plume seems to have moved further to the right in the last hour or so.

#246: Not yet, but the airline execs are not gunna fly anytime soon, citing job pressure and whatnot. Hmm... I don't recall Richard Branson announcing a new record attempt at late. How excellently suitably suspicious.

@birdseye A couple of days ago, if I remember correctly, the water temperature at the Markarfljot bridge (which is 18 km downstream from Gigjokull) was 11 deg. C. It looks like they're saying it's up to 17 C. now. Still not quite warm enough for my liking, but pretty toasty for Iceland, I'd imagine.

Stay tuned for another highlight. Steam plume is reaching the upper margin of close-up of Vodafone cam.

Looks like MÃla has replaced the cam on Valahnúkur, if the sudden appearance of the Mobotix logo is to go by.

A huge amount of slumping and cracking showing above the meltwater opening - guesstimating an area at least 100m x 100m. This currently looks like it's wedged in like a centre brick in an archway, but if it lets go, it's probably going to make a huge splash!

@birdseyeUSA (#249)

Google still has problems with eruption-related words. Here's three that appear regularly in news reports:

gosórói tremors
gosrás eruption channel, volcanic conduit
goslok the end of an eruption

"Much steam and ash Mocha is still evident in Eyjafjallajökull"

That's supposed to be plume, not Mocha.

@253 yes I have been watching that too definately alot of activity at the moment compared to this morning I am glued to the screen at the moment.

@Reynir #254

The camera is probably the same, but maybe they just got a new sponsor. Too bad they couldn't turn that camera a few degrees to the right for a view of the lava flow :)

@birdseyeUSA, #247: That was me. Whats the question about it? Thats exactly what they now did with the earthquake series from this morning, manually curate the data.

Isn't a well-brewed mocha supposed to put off a thick plume anyway?

If you look carefully at the rock showing in the thorolfsfelli cam just now, you can see the face of SANTA!

@Chris259 thanks, I didn't pick up on that part...

@eddie 261

I don't see Santa, but I think I've been looking at this too long ... I see a pair of eyes looking towards the lava plume. These eyes are just below the cloud bank in the white snow near the right side of my screen!

@eddie 261
I did see Santa but he then lost his beard and changed into something more like Munch's "Scream"

@Anne 264.
Which, of course, had a vivid red sky in the background allegedly due to Krakatoa eruption.

Now, through the snow/sleet he's just a spewing gargoyle!

@MrMoho 206,AlisonUK198 were those corrected EQ's? @Chris that's what I was referring to.

The brook on our left-hand side of the glacier tongue has definitely grown since yesterday.

Is that a huge landslide to the right falling into the lake

@Renato I Silveira [209]

"My question is: How deep is the magma chamber that's supposed to feed both Eyjaf and Katla, if that should be the case?"

I'm not the expert you are seeking, however;

"After relocating the earthquakes, many of them form separate clusters, but the overall pattern forms a pipe-like structure extending from the crust-mantle boundary towards the surface below the northern edge of the ice cap. The aseismic gap in the âchannelâ between approximately 5 and 8 km depth indicates different rheological conditions of the rock.

Increased plasticity of the rock matrix could explain its less brittle behaviour and thus the seismic quiescence and hence we suggest that this is an indication of a magma storage and from there magma flowed southwards to form the intrusion in 1999 and that a similar process also occurred in 1994."

From: "Seismic Signs of Magma Pathways through the Crust in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, South Iceland" - Sigurlaug Hjaltadóttir, KristÃn S. Vogfjörð, Ragnar Slunga

Of the last 8 seismic events, 7 of them were deep, averaging 15.9 km down. They are offset about 4km to the west and 7 km lower than the main clusters that led to the fissure eruption and the subsequent main caldera eruption we are peeking at on the cams. The "feed pipe" that led to the original main clusters started about 2 to 3 km above where these quakes occurred. "feed pipe" being my term and having no official standing, that's just what it looks like on my 3D plot.

Any thoughts as to what this means from people who actually study this stuff?

@snotra viking, #210: Eyjafjöll is yet not considered to be part of any of the riftzones in Iceland, but perhaps it will be in a "near" future as it seems to me that the eastern rift zone is propagating to the WSW. But on the other hand Eyjafjöll is one of the oldest active volcanoes in Iceland and as this eruption is not one of her(?) first ones it's not very likely imho that this will be the one that split Eyjafjöll apart. Oh well in a couple of million years we'll know for sure. I guess we all just have to stay tuned ;)

/Just another spectator.

"Milk from the dairy farms in the affected areas uncontaminated" (ruv.is today). Well, that's good news for the farmers, they have enough to deal with as it is.

But to think: If Vesuvius were to erupt now 600,000 people would be directly affected, or even as many as one million.

And I'm not going into the horrible environmental disaster the people in the US are trying to deal with now.

(ok, I've had my Pollyanna moment today. I'm going back to the exciting stuff: watching those tuff rocks crumble at glacial speed)

In my part of Iceland there is a lot of haze currently. It is quite unusual for this time of year. It might be from the volcano, or it might just be pollution. I am not sure yet.

Very big drop in tremors http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html

Well, the gargoyl is back and I don't know how long it will stay there. LOL

There have been a lot of change since I was on last night. I have not seen what the rest of you have, but that is ok. At least I can see something.

I think I will be off for a while. I have laundry to do and other things I don't even want to think about.

Catch you all later.

Rats! It is hard to get away from the computer!

On the right side of the gargoyle's "mouth" there is a huge stream of water on the Ãórólfsfelli cam. Vodafone camera down - dammit, Janet!

It feels like she is holding her breath....

I was watching when that flow on the right opened up. It just gushed down and it has been hard, as I said above, to get away from the computer. I did get the socks in the washer. ^_^

@276 vodafone is fine, fellow scot.

#277 Nah, she taking a tinkle break...

Probably intends to use the rain veils to pull off some naughtiness on unsuspecting webcam watchers.

My speculation about this drop in tremor activity (which is rising again as I'm writing, though) is that if it's caused by its underlying magma chamber(s) being been almost fully filled, then tomorrow we should start seeing a marked inflation in GPS time series data, unless the volcano starts erupting explosively again.

Water level in the meltwater pond seems to be rising significantly.

#222 #270 Thank you for the useful information. I'll have to study them to have a "3d " understanding of the processes involved. I'm worried from the fact that they keep connecting this eruption to Katla, when there's no evidence that Katla will erupt in consequence of this one. Thought that these deep earthquakes could drop a light to it. Thank yo very much.

maybe this is why we can't see very clearly??
www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/data/VAG_1272886826.png

nah, wrong side of volcano...cameras are the other way..my goof

Hi all, greetings from Ireland. Was silently watching ever since. Now, a bit like Erik (but on the receiving end... studying to be a fully qualified behavior analyst, I have little time to go through all comments. Still amazed by this wonderful blog. As a frequent Iceland goer (of German and Irish decent :o)I am most interested in old Eya. Of course I am far far far from beng an expert, but it is nice to get good scientific info.
As for tonight here in Eire (20 miles from Knock Airport, Ireland West) our Lady of Iceland seems to put a halt on air travel again. Never mind guys. Nobody believed, me when I said, that things are not over... but they only read the "Behavior Analyst" I suppose :o)Very good journal on the science of behavior. Might soon feature a few articles on air passenger behavior, when faced with a vulcanic crisis. Would love to carry out a few studies about that myself. Thanks a mill Erik for this site and blog and good luck for you and your students with the exams.

New wave of flight bans due to a ash cloud coming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/86585…

@Renato I Silveira [270]

"...study them to have a "3d " understanding of..."

I got severely frustrated at Excel as I was dropping the quake info spreadsheets. No 3D scatter chart of any usefulness. I remembered that Dplot had been used by Anthony Watts (WUWT) in some of his environment stuff so I picked up a version (very well priced). The cool part about it is that it integrates with Excel, and allows you to generate a 3D scatter plot with the click of a mouse (after you highlight the data). Once you have the plot, you can easily slew around to different viewing angles. I don't recommend it unless you really like to get a spatial grasp on where stuff is located at. On top of the quake plots, I have an added (Lat Lon Height) plot of the volcanoes.

"...I'm worried from the fact that they keep connecting this eruption to Katla, when there's no evidence that Katla will erupt in consequence of this one. Thought that these deep earthquakes could drop a light to it..."

From what I've seen most of the quakes are focused near the currently erupting caldera. Not much going on over at Katla. It's almost boring other than the Helicorder data. In my opinion, that's the best measure of what this eruption is up to.

#Lurking
I hope it is quite so. We don't want to bring Katla much into this. Better leave her in the realms of her own independence and pray God it will remain so. Thank you very much. I'm learning a lot from this blog and my expertise on volcanism will surely be enriched after all the enlightement acquired here. And if the clouds allow we will be able to enjoy the beautiful pirotchny Eyjaf has provided us eversince.

I think given a glimpse or two that there has been a large burst of water the river appeared to be full no mud flats visable

Wonder who'll be the first to shout bingo when the lava stream appears at the tip of the glacier tongue. Probably won't be me, though.

@292: will we actually see it though? Or it will it just result in so much steam the camera looks... like it does right now.

I would love to go and see the huge ice-cave where the water is pouring out. All this will be gone in a day or two (or four). Big clouds of sulphur dioxide are hanging about though (emitted by the meltwater).

"The volcano that stopped Britain" is now on Youtube in 5 parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nF5MfVkG68

That remains to be seen. (Any pun in here is very definitely intended.)

The Markarfljót level is stable at about 660, the salinity is going down and the water temperature is close to freezing point. Clearly, the meltwater now travels most of the way down in contact with the glacier, melting what it can until there is no heat left to exchange, and emerges at about freezing temperature. The conductivity going down shows that the ash-contaminated water is diluted quite a bit.

Some interesting footage on TV tonight. Didn't realise until then (I've never been to there) exactly how great bloody big the tip of GÃgjökull is now.

Looks to me like there has been a huge increase in meltwater based on the Vodafone cam.

I just watched the show "The volcano that stopped Britain". See comment 214. Great for perspective views of the Eyjafjallajökull and the water flows. A really interesting documentary.

Thanks for the link to downloading sites! If anybody know of more documentary shows, please post a comment here to tell us all.

Let´s all blow on our screens to make the fog go away.

One, two, threeeee....

@snotra viking - just got back to computer, you weren't kidding about the fog, were you!!

I just looked and for the moment, the valacam is disconnected

Who wants to write the first Haiku?

I can't think of anything to write that doesn't have fog, rain, or clouds in it!

Birdseye, not kidding, just annoyed becuse i´m blind. I can recommend the british documentary, se above, if you want to see something with more action. There is also a pisaca album from vodafone today.

Eye-resting soft grey
behind waits black,white and red
wait for a moment

@snotra, that was said with !! ,meaning ' good heavens,I see what you mean!!' a sort of use-the-negative for emphasis...ah, english ...
todays's report : www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption?139,32

@beedragon..
faced with foggy screen,
reach out for ice,rock,steam.
eyes blind,senses too.

Birdseye, you blow on your screen yet? LOL. I did understand that, but I also wanted to give you some tip of what to do instead... :-)

Write a haiku for me?

Blew on my screen. Should have finished eating the crackers though. DOH!

My very first attempt at Haiku! lol

I wonder whats up
EJ's hiding in the clouds
I wish I could see!

Eyafjellsjokul was roarin'
and from it lava was pourin'
it left Europe in chains
'coz people had pains
on account of no planes a soarin'

Guys please don't take this too serious... I can't come up with Haikus. But being from ~ireland ~I thought Limericks might do :o)))))) please no offence to anybody.

@snotra Just answering the call to action by @beedragon - but left out a syllable, drat! Should be 'reaching'... now I need to be quiet and do some work!

I see Ireland has re-imposed flight restrictions, at least from 0600 to 1200 Tuesday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8658738.stm

Apparently overflights aren't affected, only flights to/from Ireland. Not sure about the reasoning behind that -- maybe a safewty decision compromised by politics? Or do they only expect (or pretend to expect) ash at lower altitudes?

softly tinted lens
true reality obscured
what are we missing?

this is a haiku
less dull than the eruption
end of the haiku

New Link posted

@bjarni

That made me laugh out loud!

Sky News now reports that Scotland is included in the flight restrictions.

Aberdeen is still.
I will hear birdsong again
tomorrow morning.

Raging Bee (#314). Here's the ash forecast:

http://metoffice.com/aviation/vaac/data/VAG_1272886826.png

The ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull is nothing like it was in the beginning, in fact I think the ash emission is only about 1/10 or 1/20 of what it was when they basically shut down the European airspace. And the ash doesn't shoot up to these jet stream altitudes either.

But the ash plume has been more concentrated in the past 1 or 2 days or so and the wind has been consistently blowing in a south-east direction. Scotland and Ireland aren't that far away from Iceland (as you can see on the map) and it's been clear for a couple of days now that they might get affected.

Here is a written description of the eruption in the year 1612 or 1613. This is in Icelandic, but google translate might help somewhat on the translation on this text.

http://www.vedur.is/vedur/frodleikur/greinar/nr/1896

Fog and clouds
All cams our down...
S**t!

Thanks for the amazing photos on this thread. I am sorry I can't upload any of the graphs I saved from the early stages of the eruption.
I have just seen the latest news re an ash cloud meaning that flights are being cancelled over Ireland tomorrow.
telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7674704/Volcanic-ash-cloud-shuts-down-Irish-airspace.html
New ash cloud threatens flights
Flights in Ireland may have to be cancelled on Tuesday as a result of a thick cloud of volcanic ash drifting from Iceland.
Irish air traffic controllers warned that they may have to declare a no-fly zone, posing a threat to services from Dublin and Shannon as the plume drifts across the Atlantic from Iceland
"We think there may be disruption above Scottish air space, we are waiting to hear what the Met Office tells us," a NATS spokesman said.

Today's official update(s) here...

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1884

My cuppa's empty.
Fog and rain hide scenery.
Time enough for tea.

#312: Nice one. Gotta see if I have enough brain cells working to throw up a limmie.

View's murky all over the place,
You see sod all, even from space.
The rain and the fog
--may as well be vog--
blind the webcams' inquisitive gaze.

3 more Earthquakes under Eyjafjallajökull

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

There has been 3 more of those deep earthquakes under Eyjafjallajökull.

20:37:57, 1.9 magnitude, 17.4km depth, 99% accuracy
21:06:39, 1.8 magnitude, 16.7km depth, 99% accuracy
21:17:22, 1.5 magnitude, 18.0km depth, 99% accuracy

When she started we couldn't pronounce her name
but we watched in wonder just the same
she huffed and she puffed
she roared and she bluffed
Eyjafjallajokull holds all the cards in this poker game

#312 I like limericks Ulrike.. :) know quite a few, too rude to be repeated here. lol

There is an Icelandic Volcano
whose name I just cannot pronounce Oh!
Though I gave it a try
Couldn't get past the Ey
So gave up, so pathetic I know

All EQ´s are at 15-18km depth. Most are 99% verified.

Something is happening and I think we will see a very dramatic development within short.

Any vulcanologist or geologist here who has a theory of what might be going on down there?

As a layman it seems that the main feeding magma chamber is acting up. Question is..Is this magma chamber connected with the same feed Katla has? Would be interesting to see someone who actually has the knowledge commenting on this.

Looking at the coordinates of the EQ´s it seems to go on a north south line. Would this indicate a large magma chamber or just a north south intrusion?

11 EQ´s today. All at 15-18km depth. All at (roughly) the same coordinates. All has similar magnitude.

My guess is that the geologists on Iceland wont get much sleep in the next few days.

Alot of questions i know. Sorry but i am fascianted and curious as to what this would mean. :-)

You sure have some talent. I enjoy reading all poems! :)

There is a new thread on Eyjafjallajökull. I have moved the talk over there.

@Daniel #332

fire away, it's how most of us here learn! If you are lucky one of the pro's will respond.

re something dramatic happening, I don't think so. At least not more dramatic than has already happened.

Remember, the crust here is not all that thick. It is much thicker under Vatnajökull (40 km from memory) and thinning out to about 30 under Katla and 20 to 25 under Eyjafjallajökull, so these quakes are pretty close to the mantle/crust boundary. Secondly, there is a region of transition at about 12 to 14 km where the crust becomes progressively more ductile due to pressure and heat and not as brittle (a geologist once described it to me as silly putty, you know that stuff kids play with - it will stretch to a certain extent but beyond a certain point it will snap). To make it snap you need tension, either shifting faults or, as in this case, the intrusion of magma.

Thirdly, this activity is massively below the level of activity that was going on prior to the eruption, mostly due to the fact that the conduit is now open to the surface, so rising magma no longer has to break its way to the surface. That said, I don't think these few quakes indicate a significant change in the nature of the eruption. I would guess an elevated level of activity in the coming hours.

Fourthly, if the magma is indeed coming from a deep source, it is most likely of a similar basaltic non-explosive composition to that we saw at Fimmvordulhalsi and not the explosive andesite we saw in the first days from the crater, which was most likely residue from a shallow magma chamber, i.e. we are most likely to see more lava fountaining.

Fifthly, is the disclaimer.. you never know with these things!!! There is an outside chance that evolved magma (i.e. more silicic (explosive) is rising from depth, though I must admit my ignorance on the feasibility of evolved magmas at this depth in Iceland.. I know they can arise in other settings, just not sure about here) or that a new conduit is opening that taps into a shallow more felsic magma chamber that has so far not been affected by the current eruption - this could then open a new vent and we would have a rerun of what we witnessed over the last couple of weeks.. but we are really in the land of conjecture here. My best guess is business as usual with perhaps elevated eruption volume in the next day or so.

#335 Hope we get more fireworks to see and no imminent threat to icelanders.

Where is everyone? Anything new on any of the volcanos.

It comes when called
The more you say its name
Stop trying to pronounce it!

PS: Thanks, Anna, for the explanation of Ireland's decision.

Night/early morning brought a whole lot more EQ.

Can't see anything due to the weather.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=table

@Evelyn 339 and338,337 there's a new thread started, everyone is over there.

How do you get to the new thread. I cannot seem to find the chat? Kan man hjelpe meg.

Ja Grothar, set Dem her ned...eller Google Eruptions blog of saa finder Dede nye 'threads/updates
scienceblogs.com/eruptions/?utm_source=bloglist&utm_medium=dropdown

It is rare to find experts who can present this sort of articles in a clear manner like you do.

As a Newbie, I am constantly browsing online for articles that can be of assistance to me. Thank you