Posted on by Jón Frímann

Rift valley has formed south of the eruption in Holuhraun lava field

This information is going to get outdated quickly. This is current events in Báðarbunga volcano.

  • Rift valley has formed south of the eruption. Part of this rift valley is not under the glacier. Most of this rift valley is under the glacier, were the glacier is thin the glacier has formed a cauldron that is around 1 km wide and several meters deep. There is a risk of eruption in the newly formed rift valley.
  • Harmonic tremor suggest that an glacier flood is under way from Bárðarbunga volcano. What is happening is unclear at the moment. Scientists and press people have been told to evacuate the area due to this risk.
  • More magma is going into the dyke then is erupting from it. This has increased the pressure inside the dyke.
  • Largest earthquake since midnight had the magnitude 5,5.

Updates

  • There has not been any sign of an eruption under the glacier yet. One idea for this increase in harmonic tremor is that ground water got into contact with the magma at 1 to 2 km depth.
  • There is a high risk of eruption taking place under the glacier in the area of Dyngjujökull glacier, that glacier is south of current eruption and can be seen on the Míla web cameras.
  • There is a lot of cracks in the ground south of the eruption, in some places the ground has dropped some meters down.

Updates on 4-September-2014

  • Largest earthquakes since midnight (04-September-2014) had the magnitude of 4,8 and 4,4.
  • The eruption is now creating  120 to 130 meters tall lava fountains at the moment. No other change has been reported.

News in both Icelandic and English

Mikið af sprungum í jörðinni (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Video, Image)
Hraun­breiðan 9,1 fer­kíló­metri (mbl.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Notice on commens

I have to approve all comments first time around. This is in order to prevent spam from taking place in my comment section. Spam prevention is the common Captcha puzzle and a maths test. Registered users don’t have to type in captcha word puzzle or the maths test.

Article updated at 00:27 UTC on 04-September-2014.
Article updated at 11:58 UTC on 04-September-2014.
Article updated at 14:01 UTC on 04-September-2014.

314 Replies to “Rift valley has formed south of the eruption in Holuhraun lava field”

  2. Rift Valley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift_valley

    Jon or someone, what forces were in play that lead to rapid development of this rift valley forming. Is it due to the extension of the dyke exploiting an existing rift fissure? If I am looking at this correctly, this widens the possibility of an explosive rifting fissure eruption occurring as it extends into the glacier and then possibly unzips up to the caldera. This is a bad development, correct?

    1. If, there is a big if,. but if that happens and water/ice mixes with the lava, well it gets nasty thats for sure. But how big it will become,and how explosive it will get is unclear. Hypotetically it can get very bad.It depends on the pressure and amount of lava and eventually how big the rift will open.This is an hawaiian style eruption,and im not sure this will react with water.Maybe jon can tell us more about that,my guess is if a great deal of meltwater,lets say a lahar/jøkullaup hits the fissure, the first thing that happens is explotions and steam and maybe some ashfall,. Normally when lava hits water it cracks and smolder,and produces gasses and steam.But when a fissure eruption hits water,I simply have not seen that on land, so I dont know,just guessing wildly.

      1. If the caldera collapses it might become very serious,Scientists reveal that a colapse at Bardarbunga volcano could cause an eruption as huge as the 1991 mt Pinatubo event :O
        then what?!

    2. It wouldn’t affect the eruption, but a sufficiently strong CME such as the one that caused the Carrington Event in 1859 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 could cause electrical transformers to explode, crippling the economy of half the planet, perhaps for decades. It would also disable a lot of satellites. So in the short run, in a worst case scenario, it could have a huge effect on volcano monitoring and disaster preparedness and response in Iceland. Although CMEs strong enough to do that aren’t rare, only quite rarely do they strike Earth.

  5. Wow, fantastic to have the opportunity to observe such actions, probably a once in a lifetime opportunity – whatever happens will happen, we are all bystanders, watching and learning.

    It’s a big thank you to Jon for his work in the past few years with this website, educating and explaining to us the readers.

    Let’s hope that eveyone keeps safe.

    1. Meta on right

      But it says i am already registered and have to pick another name. I have been posting here for a few years.

      Still have to do the captcha thing though

      1. Yes, you are. I found your user name. It is using some hotmail address. If you don’t know your password you can request a new one. If your email doesn’t work, then you can send me a new one and I can update the email address in your account and then you can request new password after that.

      2. Sorry. Foolishly i never tried to log in. Logged in now according to your page but had some hassles and not yet sure if they are resolved.

  7. OK some of the comments are getting a bit exciteable! What is happening is purely down to plate tectonics in action, nothing more, nothing less. It has nothing to do with the sun, a magnetic reversal or anything else like that.

    1. yes but it is majorly not only due to plate tectonics in action because of the hotspot.

    2. Agree! When we start to see large amounts of magma moving up from the mantle like this and quickly overwhelming Barda’s plumbing system and then moving over a very large area and sourcing a rifting fissure with the potential for a 2nd caldera at Askja, it does not look good.

      Jon, is there a way to compare the crust movement for this episode with the movement that would typically result from a subduction EQ. I wonder what that equivalent magnitude would be.

      1. This is not a subduction episode. This is rifting episode. Since no eruption has happened until now since monitoring started in Iceland there is no way to know for sure what happens next in this.

      2. Yes, I know this is not a subduction event. What I was trying to ask was this: when there is a subduction EQ, we have movement. We also have movement from rifting and tectonic separation. If you were to compare the movement from a subduction EQ with the rifting movement, what would the subduction EQ have to be. I know, its a poor comparison.

  8. For all new-followers I post my little map here again:
    http://abload.de/img/karte-bardarbung03-etpvqfr.jpg

    The original map is from here:
    http://en.ja.is/kort/?x=607678&y=484232&z=4&type=aerial
    The more you zoom in, the more names of mountains and lavafields etc. you see.

    My map is not exact, it should only show some places that you read here or on other pages. I know it is not easy to imagine how this landscape looks if you have not been there and also if you have been there like me, you can not identify all, because the distances can be deceiving and many smaller mountains look very similar.
    Pleas let me know, if you have to correct something…

    1. Thanks, can you please mark cam1 and cam2 as 1 and 2 on the lines. That question comes up so often.

      1. I meant the lines as an angle (is this the right word?) for the area the cams will pick up. Cam 2 is mostly zoomed in but shows not really another view…

      2. OK but I thought they were slightly different views before looking at your map.

      3. Cam 1 is a little bit more to the south. As Jon said, there is at the left side a little bit of Kverkfjöll.
        But they changed the view also. In the last days (weekend?) they swing around sometimes more to the left and back again.

      2. Yes, it was a great day and experience! Even if we not reached the geothermal field on top, because of less condition…

    3. OK!!! I think I better understand the layout now and have some better bearings! Sorry about before. Only thing is the fissure placement does need to move further north closer to Askja. But, I finally understand the camera layouts now. Thank you.

      1. 🙂
        I’ve made a red square around the holuhraun because the north end of the fissure sometimes moves to the north again (and perhaps to the south?). So it’s not too exact.

    1. It is a possible flood due to under ice eruption. Read this article and you will se what they suspects.

      2. Scientists did not see any change on the surface of the glacier but it remains to be seen if there is an eruption under the ice.

    2. This looks like an eruption under the glacier. The problem is that the glacier is thick in this area, up to 700 meters thick. So it is not known were it is happening or what to expect when it comes to the glacier flood.

      1. I’m sure there is a lot of variation, but what is the start of a glacial flood usually like? Do they start as a trickle, then a stream, then a flood, or do they burst out suddenly in full force, or what?

      2. like a flashflood,it comes down like a raging river,thats how it start,. Usually its like dams that give away from the preassure,in this case Icedams,. they just cant keep the meltwater and it burst out,suddenly and forcefull,and realy really fast and dangerous

    2. I am an amtuer geologist, but i work as an engineer. Softer material gives lower frequencies. Magma and ice/water softer compared to crushing rock. Magma to magma – magma to rock, ice and water streaming. Maybe

  16. Hello! Jon, any online parameters or news regarding the water level on the Grimsvotn lake? 6 days ago it increased dramatically with the small eruption, it may be a good indicator again for what is happening under the glacier…

  17. Wish I could get onto the cams. Haven’t been able to since this thing started ‘unable to connect to server’

  18. Sure there is something going on under the glacier, what only time will tell, but it will be sooner rather than later in my view.

    1. I think you right. The tremor plot is going wild. Things are streaming. Flood or ash eruption ot both.

  19. IMO homepage (w w w dot vedur dot is) seems to be Down…. Wonder if the pressure on their server is too big given the news of a rift valley… (sounds quite dramatic)

      3. I have had little success with the IMO website for days. If I leave the computer trying to download the site it usually manages to get something after 2 – 4 hours of trying, but nothing in real time.

  21. As they say in the food trade you have had your starter, now it’s time for the main course. And I think this could be the main course ready to be served.

    2. The tremor is going wild at DYN not at ASK. Is under the ice and going fast. Maybe tonight.

  26. Hold on Jonus, let’s have dinner first, you don’t want to get indigestion. What ever is happening under the glacier could be big,everything is starting to develop and develop fast.

  28. Jon. What would be the outcome if Bardarbuga caldera was to collapse,with all the seismic activity it must be getting week through all the strain that been put on it

    1. ed Scotland

      I calculated the volume of caldera at around 1000km3. I’m in Scotland near
      Edinburgh, It will have a big impact on us over here if it happens, maybe not immediatly, although watch out for Tsunami, but long term air pollution could be a serious problem for all. I suffer from asthma so I will be on the move fast even if it means missing the vote!

      2. Jón

        Tsunami can be activated if a sudden flood of material enters the sea. Tsunami can also be activated by sub sea land slips as ash deposits collect on unstable slopes on the sea floor. Such a Tsunami off Norway may have created the English channel.

      3. you are right, But I dont thing a caldera colapse on Bårdarbunga, will create a Tsunami. but it might create an enormous ash cloud and eruption we have not seen for a long long time at Iceland. Now When it comes to underwater Tsunamis created by underwater landslides as the Storegga landslide,the danger is still out there in that area and along the entire Norwegian continental shelf /coastline ,but I dont think that a caldera colapse at Bårdar will be able to trigger any of that,if so there must be created an earthquake simmilar to the japanese and Indian ocean quake. I live in Aalesund(norway), wich is not far from a Tsunami dangerous area,as the rifting of the Aakernesrift is a continuing threat to every one that lives along the fiords of geiranger and storfjord,that rift is groving every year a few cm.And will sooner or later take down the entire mountainside into the fiord, and create a tsunami about 80-100 m tall. At Iceland i Dont think there are such threat? Jon have you heard anything about a possible landslide area that might fall out into the atlantic? Anyways. if the caldera collapses it might become huge, no doubt about that.

    2. Ash cloud and flood with be the result and new landscape in this part of Iceland. If this is going to happen. I don’t know and I don’t think anyone does so yet.

      1. And potentially lethal sulphur dioxide gas cloud. Laki killed people that way all over Europe. What’s the biggest source of SO2? Fissures or central volcanoes?

        I notice the rate of earthquakes has dropped a lot in recent hours — could this mean pressure is being relieved by an opening we don’t know about, e.g. under the ice?

      2. From my limited reading, its more a matter how explosive for how long the eruption is along with a high SO2 level and ideally the presence of water in the magma. Laki had all the factors. It is not expected that the magma coming from inside Barda has that level of SO2 and water so you need icecap melts into the caldera for a long time and that just doesn’t happen as it would be limited to weeks. The unknown is the concentration levels of SO2 and H2O in the source magma. Also, the more moisture there is in the atmosphere, the less dissolved SO2

  30. Hi Jon Great coverage. Something is going on on cam 1, in the last few min first there was a white plume directly in front of the cam, now it has started to turn black. Any ideas

    1. Its gone now lasted about 2 min, looked like a jet of steam, then it turned black and stopped.

  31. I don’t know if you noticed, but on vedur’s site it shows that the GPS measured divergence between DYNC and GSIG stations since the beginning of the entire event (mid-August) is ~55 cm (half a meter)! This is huge and explains quite well the graben formation.

  32. Does anyone know what’s the status concerning Askja. Do you she could become a player in this.

    1. Put some other ways, how far is that dike from Askja’s magma, how volatile would magma mixing be were it to happen, how strong is the wall of granite blocking it and could Askja blow anyway just from the general instability and deformation especially given its own existing instability recently? I’ve seen it said (with what authority I don’t know) the earthquakes past Askja are not from the dike extending but from the instability the dike is causing — but there’s quite a linear pattern to them, isn’t there.

      In past big eruptions like Laki multiple volcanoes in the system have erupted at the same time so something like that is certainly not out of the question.

  34. Might just be my imagination, but the Mila-1 view just got a LOT darker and more apolalyptic. Right-hand half of the screen is now ash cloud? Unless the wind changed, blowing the existing clouds toward the camera….

    1. Amazing. And didn’t Jon say earlier, if it gets there we’ll see some local ash explosions, and there was one already? Now, if there really is something happening under the ice, that river is the one most likely to flood, and then things will get really interesting at the fissure!

  36. I totally agree with you Wial, but it’s the great uncertainty that is causing the problems. Iceland has been relatively quiete for a long time. So it well overdue a major upheaval,and this may or May not be start of it. At the moment there is more questions than answers,and it even teasing Icelands great volcano experts playing a game of cat and mouse.

    1. After waiting years for Katla to blow after Eyjafjallajökull did, as it has in the past, I’m not sure we can count on dueness re volcanoes except maybe Old Faithful in Yellowstone. And yes, although no doubt the events we’re witnessing aren’t so different from many in the past, we humans have never had the monitoring equipment we do now so a whole lot about this is unprecedented. Volcanoes erupt around the world all the time but every history is different, every mix of rock and magma is different, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is unique. Not only that, climate change is affecting the distribution of ice to water on a global scale, and the water itself is expanding, so the whole planet is getting warped in a whole new way (or at least in a way not seen since before modern humans first evolved). Which may or may not account for the mag 9 earthquakes we’ve seen in recent years …

  38. Wow, what a cool pilot!
    Want to say thanks to everyone here for great info. I follow your comments about the developement with great interest!

  39. Great view from the aircraft window,and a privilege for the passengers to see a great sight

  40. Just sit back and enjoy the show!. Mother nature at it’s best, nothing beats the power of the earth

  41. I don’t know much about geology, but I’m keenly following everything that happens. On the bardabunga-1 in the last minutes it looks like there’s a new stripe of magma just before the other spots that were there before. Or am I wrong about that?

    1. Someone else will have to confirm, but I think that’s the edge of the lava field that has grown and extended from the fissure 🙂

  43. How do we know the tremor is not decompression melt of magma if this is a rifting event. We don’t even know how deep this event is. We know the depth of earthquakes, but they only occur where there is obstruction. Perhaps the whole event may have been the rift forming, cracking the magma chamber of Bardabunga, and allowing the magma out. Please would one of you experts explain why this could not be the case please?

  44. That’s the problem nobody is 100% sure what is happening under the ice,but with all the activity something for sure is going on. And with more magma coming in than going out, something eventually has to give. As for the rifts, that is part of Iceland, two plates pulling apart then magma filling the void, don’t forget Iceland is a work in progress, she will always change and evolve for hundreds of thousands years to come.

  45. Treacleminer

    The scientists have tested the lava from the fissure eruption and I believe they concluded it was from directly below and not a magma chamber.

  46. That’s what I mean she’s a work in progress, and one of the best places in the world for scientists.

    1. One of the few places we can observe and measure what is going on deep below our feet.The interior of our planet is still a much contested mystery.even the “plume” is contested.This place is special.

      1. In that sense, Iceland is not much different than a serial killer. We can observe numerous symptoms and behaviors on the surface and easily deduce from there that deep below in the twisted wreckage of their unsalvagable psyche is a cauldron of disorganized thought and emotion that is brewing. In both cases, you hope they don’t erupt in your zip code.

  47. Wow! Is it just me or is the fissure looking even more impressive tonight? Fountains certainly look higher to me now

  48. The most frequent earthquake strength has gone up, so I think the fissure is probably breaking new ground and growing. That is what happened before when the average strength of earthquakes in the fissure increased. I.e. excluding the big ones in Bardabunga Caldera which are from a different cause.

  49. Fluorine poisoning killed half of the Iceland cattle and 75% of the horses and sheep. The ‘Haze Famine’ as it came to be called, eventually killed 10,000 people, 20% of the population.

  50. I quite agree, Iceland is a feisty old girl, she has her nice days, she has her bad days and every so often she’ll through a tantrum. That’s why Iceland is so unique. Unlike Hawaii where is just liquid lava,Iceland has it all.

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