213 Replies to “Eruption has started on the fissure swarm”

  1. On the Youtube livestream everyone has become so jaded after a week of jumping at every ash cloud and car headlight, they’re convinced this is just an artificial light on the camera, not actual magma.

    People are silly.

    1. This is really amazing, I’d been away for a short while and when I got back and checked the cam, I suddenly started yelling “It’s erupting! There’s lava! Look! It’s really erupting now!”.

      Fortunately my husband is used to me. 😉

  2. hi jon

    thank you for all your time and effort . jon could we be looking at the worst case scenario now. Will there be a huge ash cloud effecting uk air space .

    1. This is on glacier free area now. So there is no risk of any ash cloud. That might change, but at this moment there is no risk of ash cloud.

      1. Right now there should be no ash cloud heading for the UK airspace. The winds would blow it toward Greenland.

        The UK aviation authority says it will not close its airspace anyhow. They said it will be up to the airlines to decide if they can fly through any ash up to a substantial amount. At least according to the Guardian. “The CAA said it would issue a notice to airlines should an ash cloud form but it would not close airspace. Individual airlines will decide where to fly.”

  3. Hey Jon, can u give me the exact Location of the Webcam? Are we looking right onto the Dyke Area in front of the Dyngjujökull?

  5. Do we have any reference for scale on what we’re seeing on that webcam?

    There seems to be visible gases illuminated, and the fissure seems to have expanded considerably since it first appeared, but it’s hard to tell if it’s something small, relatively near, or something immense, really really far away.

    2. thats to early to tell,. It might become huge, or it just putters away with some lavafountains and streams,. but it is moving toward Askja, and if it gets under there it can get nasty,.

  7. Will this fissure eruption prevent the intrusion from breaching askja’s magma chamber?

    1. Not necessary, remeber fimvorduhals(eyjafjell) eruption, it started as a smal and neat and very photogenic fissure eruption. some days later it calmed down, and suddenly Eyjafjell went into eruption,. so this might be some stress relief, but it might still be more than enough to egnite Askja. or in other places,. remember that there is also a lot of ice that is melting under bårdarbunga, and that meltwater is rushing down into the lake of Grimsvatn volcano,. so take that into consideration , there might be somthing brewing and stirring in that direction too,. and there is quite a lot of shakes still under both Bårdarbunga and Askja and all the area in between,. so we might still see more and intence eruptions..

    1. The Mila cam #2 for Bardarbunga is jumping around like crazy…that or my internet is just crazy choppy. It was pretty smooth before.

  10. Many thanks for the great blogging! Following closely from the U.S. Most interested if flights will be disrupted from U.S. to Europe as before in 2010. Any thoughts for the next 3-4 weeks?

    1. I’ve heard per the CAA in the UK that they will not close the UK airspace even if it gets to the density of ash as 2010.

  12. For those worried about ash clouds – European regulatory authorities gave agreed, with manufacturers, a safe limit of 4mg per cubic metre of airspace to be a safe limit to fly through subject to robust ash inspections as per relevant technical documentation. If an eruption produces an ash cloud whose dispersed density is measured to be greater than 4mg/m3 this will be deemed prohibited airspace. (I’m an airplane maintenance guy btw)

    1. Right now, at least for the next 4-6 days winds from Iceland are not forecast to enter most of Western Europe. Not sure how that plays with ash but the airspace looks clear for 4-6 days even with an eruption.

      I’m flying on Sept. 5. I’m damn nervous. (Not for a holiday but I am moving to the UK)

    2. Doesn’t tephra altitude (height of ash column) make a big difference?

      The density of an ash cloud at 10,000 feet should have little bearing on Transatlantic flights, even if their route is close to Iceland.

      The risk equation should certainly factor altitude into the calculation!

  13. Looking at the second mila webcam, its getting longer. Distance has increased by 50%. Unless someone zoomed in the webcam.

    1. This is nonsense in Carl. Míla set the website up for the public. They can give IMO and Almannavarnir direct video feed when they feel like it, bypassing the internet completely.

  17. @Elizabeth yes that’s correct. CAA have put the responsibility on to the aircraft operator. CAA and met office will publish ash cloud extent and densities from measurement flights. It’s then up to the aircraft operator to adhere to no fly zones. There are time limited zones of greater density limits but if an aircraft breaches these zones they must justify why, for how long and what subsequent inspections took place to the authority. Most airlines will play it safe

    1. Question being is how dense is 4mg per cubic meter of air?

      Closing airspace over London is insane. Heathrow is the busiest airport I have ever been to (hopefully this is a moot point and eruption or not, it won’t happen…I hope)

      1. 4mg per cubic meter is about 4 kg/s per engine.

        fan diameter 2-3m => fan area about 4 m^2
        cruise speed 900 km/h => 15 km/m => 250 m/s
        => 1000 cubic meters into fan per second (neglecting suction)

  18. Temporary airspace boundaries defining restricted and danger area airspace are not negotiable, you follow them and give them a substantial buffer space to the boundary.

    For passenger aircraft the restrictions are all the more severely enforced, very unlikely any latitude will be permitted, they will follow a path cleared by ATC, and ATC will not clear them in to a restricted airspace.

  24. Hard to be certain what I’m seeing–my feed spends more than half the time buffering–but while the initial eruption seems to have almost completely subsided, it looks like there are additional hot spots in the immediate area. Anyone else seeing those, or is it my imagination?

  27. sun should up soon hope fully we get a better idea what happening . happy view to those are still up

  32. Maybe it’s me… but it looks like another separate eruption much closer to the webcam located @ 3dBulge.

    It’s on the right side of the screen.

    Gone now.

    Doubt it was a vehicle. The light was too bright.

    I guess we’ll know soon. Looks like daybreak is coming. [Clouds are visible.]

  33. Can now see what looks like steam coming from the site of the eruption as the light level begins to come up.

    1. I can’t see a darn thing. Too foggy/smokey/something. It’s lighter outside, but there isn’t good clarity. I’m on the West Coast of the US. Headed to bed. Looking forward to updates when I get up in a few hours.

      1. In Scandinavia we are waking up to a new exciting volcano day. It is so wonderfully dynamic. And it is to small to do anything to the air trafic and it is not populated so it is perfect natural show and scientificaly very very intresting.

      2. It keeps getting clipped off to the right. Was JUST barely in the camera view. Also seemed to be something going on out of the camera view to the right — just a glow visible from that direction.

  35. Hello everyone, Like you all, have been glued to the happenings on Iceland for about a couple of weeks. This is my second all-nighter (dawn soon). Thoroughly amazed when I spotted the first emission of goo from that fissure. Then it was bright and what we’d expect lava to look like, but has long since become black n white. I’m watching earthquake data on another website too, so that when the webcams get overloaded with people watching, I’ll still get the data updates. The scientists have been working like trojans verifying all the earthquakes and there’s been a lot! Anyway, I’m watching from the Outer Hebrides, Bonnie Scotland and hope everyone in Iceland is safe, as well as the livestock and wild creatures. Thoughts winging their way over to you 🙂

  36. Thank you for your very interesting blog, Jon!
    hope i will have a flight from Germany to Iceland tomorrow. An maybe we will see the eruption there. any suggestions to go into the area?

  37. Has anyone got a link for a webcam that is still working.
    I have tried the Mila2 link and just have a black fuzzy screen.

    Thanks

  39. Have just seen orange flares and more white smoke to the left and in front of the rift thats already smoking.

    Has anyone else noticed this.

  40. Good Morning. I must have the “fissure big” since I woke up last night to exactly the moment it started. Again I have a FB link but find it interesting since its a satellite picture over the area of eruption. My morning question to you smart people and Jon. I see 1. a decrease of seismic activity since the opening of the fissure and 2. that the latest earthquakes are going back a few km on the dike. Is this surprising for you? https://www.facebook.com/jardvis/photos/a.934315269916271.1073741829.933177740030024/935804243100707/?type=1&theater

    1. big=bug sorry for typo. btw had a good laugh when one of the comment writers had problems with the captcha.

      2. ah yes, was Andrew from Finland. His comments were almost epic. Again about the earthquakes “going back a few km”. Is it simple because the dike is getting congested?

  41. Big B had a 3.8 @ 0.8km depth. That’s right about at the bottom of the ice there. Eruption getting closer? Gonna be a lot of water coming out from underneath this glacier somewhere. A very big and bad flood. Cam #2 has nice close up of fissure eruption.

  42. seems you are off by factor of 1000

    as per your own calculation

    4mg x 1000 = 4g/s per engine

    not 4kg ?

    1. Thanks for the correction. Late night math.

      At 4g/sec, that will be about 1 kg per 4 minutes. An engine would pick up a couple kilograms when it flies past — sounds like a lot for precision machinery, but at least it isn’t the disturbingly huge number I had before.

  44. Just registered I was Al i’m now Hyper Al

    I am most concerned about Bárðarbunga. The eartquakes appear to be around the edge of the caldera, suggesting weakness in that area. I hope this does not happen, and it may not, but if the pressure is released under Bárðarbunga as a result of eruptions in the surrounding area, could Bárðarbunga collapse?

    I am not suggesting it will happen, but could pressure release be a cause of such an event?

  45. There’s been large quakes deep under that area in the past couple of days Brian, will make a nice steam convection flow given the outflow goes right over the eruption fissure’s ground, plus the deep cracks that opened there. A few giga-litres in those should modify the dynamic character a little.

  48. (This is not fair making me do sums before I scribble! I’ve been awake alllll night! OK I nodded off for half an hour and eyelids weigh a tonne.) Forgot me question. Oh yeah – is it because the cam 2 at the B2 is so zoomed it appears to wobble at every quake? And, is there another volcano that’s kicked off out of shot to the left side as earlier on (about 2hrs ago) there was a lot of smoke/steam)? And thank you for letting me join your fascinating group. I really appreciate it 🙂

  50. My webcapture of 1630 hrs on the 23rd show one of the ‘dust storms’ coming from the exact same place as this fissure has opened.

    There were two other spots on the 23rd, it will be interesting to see what transpires.

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