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This information is going to get outdated quickly.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”

  1. I wish someone would turn the gain down on Bárðarbunga-2. I think it must be set to automatically increase at dusk, to give another hour or so of good picture. But with such high intensity light source, the signal blooms and loses all detail and color. The last few nights someone has remembered and turned it back down, but no one seems to be paying attention tonight.

    1. “and everybody retreated to a mountain hut at Askja, a nearby volcano. Everybody is safe there, says Dr. Hoskuldsson”

      Thank you Kim. I just learned something new.

  4. With the tremors slowing down could this be the calm before the storm. I don’t think this is the end coming yet.

  6. Unlikely to be any new info until tomorrow. Its dark. Nobody with half a brain is going to fly out, blind, at night, to try to see if something looks different.

    1. Jonny,

      Make sure you put times on each post. This is kind of like really busy and with all the postings its coming up each time we visit.

      Hope you are making money off of this.

  9. Jon, do you think there might have been another small eruption closer to the caldera during the time the harmonics went way up?

  10. I lived at Clark AFB, and my view was mt pinatubo. I have pictures and hand carved pieces of wood with the volcano In the background. That was in 1969, my dad was in the Air Force. Felt several Eq, the biggest was 6.1.

  11. My trip to Iceland is nearly here. The timing couldn’t be a bigger thrill for me. With that said, I do have a few concerns about getting stuck on the wrong side of a catastrophic flood — of the sort that destroys bridges. One of the scenarios includes possible flooding to the south or west and my multi-day itinerary in South Iceland next week goes as far as Jökulsárlón. If you were going on my trip, what developments would cause you to become hyper-vigilant, beyond the events so far? There must be a lot of meltwater accumulating by now but I don’t understand the topography or the flood plains enough to get comfortable. I’m taking a tour (a volcano and glacier tour, ha!) and would not expect the tour operators to be quite as obsessively focused as I have been here. I posted a similar question earlier but never saw a reply and now can’t find the comment. Thanks!

    1. One day before I was going on my trip to Iceland 2011 there was a flooding from Katla that broke one bridge over the ring road. The Icelanders are very good in improvising. First they carried the people with a great bus through the floods and the cars with a great truck also, then they brougtht the people with a bus over the highlands and 5 days later there was a new bridge. It was a small flood, but if something happens, trust on the Icelanders, they know what to do and are trained in case of emergency. And the touroperaters will know, where they can go or not. If you can’t go further in the south you/they will find other places.

    2. Hello Clara,
      First, congratulations on the wonderfully timing of your up-coming trip – I am truly envious. As to your personal safety, I would not be overly concerned. I have every confidence in the Icelandic authorities with respect to safety on the ring road as well as in tour operators in respecting closures and warnings. I have been to Iceland many times and have nothing but respect for the way they handle volcanic events.

      While I am not an expert in the topography of the area, I understand your concern regarding a possible jokullup in between Vik and Skaftafell. If you were renting your own car (and fear becoming “trapped” on the eastern side), there are also flights out from Hofn (aside from driving around the whole island) – an “inconvenience” to be sure but not a huge impediment. However, it sounds like this is a pre-packaged group and, should the ring road become washed out, they will handle delivering you back to Reykjavik (I presume) safely and as efficiently as possible. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry.

      1. Thanks for the reply, Mikmak. I have likewise envied others for the same reason. I’m traveling solo so decided to take a tour so I could be looking at the landscape instead of at the road. It’s a bit of a relief to have my safety concerns validated here, though. Based on the feedback I’m going to let it drop and just enjoy the experience. 🙂

  14. Are the webcams by Mila down? For some days now, I have been getting a “server not found” error when I try to access them

  15. I had tried that without any luck.
    When I tried to trace the network address, I got:
    Tracing route to do06.netvarp.is [128.199.166.176]
    over a maximum of 30 hops:

    1 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms BoB2.iiNet [10.1.1.1]
    2 14 ms 12 ms 11 ms nexthop.nsw.iinet.net.au [203.215.19.247]
    3 12 ms 12 ms 11 ms te1-1.syd-mas-bdr2.iinet.net.au [203.215.18.20]

    4 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms po3-100.syd-mas-bdr1.on.ii.net [203.215.20.153]

    5 12 ms 12 ms 11 ms ae2.syd-mas-core1.on.ii.net [203.215.20.94]
    6 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms xe-7-0-10-10.br1.syd4.on.ii.net [150.101.33.100]

    7 137 ms 137 ms 140 ms ae3.cr1.mel8.on.ii.net [150.101.33.27]
    8 139 ms 137 ms 138 ms ae0.cr1.mel4.on.ii.net [150.101.33.10]
    9 139 ms 137 ms 137 ms ae1.cr1.adl2.on.ii.net [150.101.33.41]
    10 200 ms 203 ms 205 ms ae2.cr1.per2.on.ii.net [150.101.33.39]
    11 86 ms 63 ms 67 ms ae0.cr1.per1.on.ii.net [150.101.33.12]
    12 277 ms 205 ms 204 ms po0-3-0.bdr1.sin1.on.ii.net [203.16.211.229]
    13 140 ms 142 ms 141 ms p133165.sgw.equinix.com [202.79.197.201]
    14 * * * Request timed out.
    15 * * * Request timed out.
    16 * * * Request timed out.
    17 * * * Request timed out.
    18 * * * Request timed out.
    19 * * * Request timed out.
    20 * * * Request timed out.
    21 * * * Request timed out.
    22 * * * Request timed out.
    23 * * * Request timed out.
    24 * * * Request timed out.
    25 * * * Request timed out.
    26 * * * Request timed out.
    27 * * * Request timed out.
    28 * * * Request timed out.
    29 * * * Request timed out.
    30 * * * Request timed out.

    Trace complete.

      1. I have the same problem Ari, but only on my Ipad. It works on my normal PC. Maybe that’s the problem? By the way, only fog now 😉

      2. It seems the 3D site that most people are looking at isn’t being kept up to date. A 4.8/4.9 quake a few hours ago is missing also.

  17. I see that the big quakes are still around the Bardarbunga caldera, which means she still under a lot of stress. And what about the rift Jon, how will that play out being close to the volcano.

    1. There seems to me to be zero basis to suggest that barda is under a lot of stress. The opposite seems to be the case

  18. Im sure i saw a post near the begining of this thing where it was suggested that a given event could only have 10 mag 5s before blowing. My count puts us way beyond that in bard caldera alone?

    1. I think you are right but with the pressure at barda being released into the dyke maybe this was not going to happen but with pressure now appearing to be building back up who knows.

  19. Hi All Just registered!

    Bit misty out on the webcams this morning 🙂

    Exciting times!

  21. I have a reaction when people include climate change in the discussion! Ie the planet is NOT getting hotter we are overdue for an ice age! Global warming is a massive con job- as countless world class scientists testify. Anyway we probably would all do well tohope all this activity stops and magna goes back to sleep – its not a outlook commensurate with biological activity!

    1. My learning always taught that global warming would trigger another iceage in the northern hemisphere as the release of ice would push warmer air further south so the planet usually finds a way to balance itself out.

    2. There are countless scientists who think there is some global warming going on due to CO2 release. The planet is getting hotter, the question is why. You dont know why but you say you know and thinks its a conspiracy. Put your foil hat on.

    3. My post grad degree in earth sciences is specialising in climate. Volcanic activity is just a side interest. However I can state with authority that overall the planet is warming. It hasn’t warmed at all in the last 17 years, and may even drop over the next couple of decades, then the increase is likely to start again. I would be very worried if global temperatures started to fall, and kept right on falling. That would not be nice.

      This variabilty is mainly natural. Oh yes, man does have an affect, but that affect is small compared to nature.

      1. Yeah but we love green taxes dont we.

        Jeremy Clarkson once said that all the cars in the world probably dont pollute as much as 1 eruption I think. Dont quote me.

      2. Earth has warmed and cooled since the day of her creation.
        Huge volcanic eruptions can influence the entire planet.
        Google – year without a summer.

      3. Not actually true. The world is warming at the same rate, only most of the heat is going into the ocean, not the atmosphere, at the moment. In a few years (I’ve read 15) the cycle that is causing the ocean to absorb heat will reverse, and then there will be a huge disgorging of that heat back into the atmosphere. Sorry, you should keep current, this is all over the news.

    4. Me too. I can’t stand it when people accuse the world climatology community of a con job in the middle of a seismology discussion! It’s the most ridiculous assertion, especially in face of the fact the latest risk assessment study literally puts the odds of it being due to human activity at 99.999%. http://theconversation.com/99-999-certainty-humans-are-driving-global-warming-new-study-29911 . It’s really insulting to the real scientists here and those who respect real scientists to even bring the subject up!

      As for triggering an ice age, that was always considered an outlier possibility at best, even back when it was popularized by the mainstream press. To be sure, big melt years in the Arctic like 2007 and 2012 seem to trigger rebounds, but those are temporary, like a ball bouncing down a flight of steps bouncing seemingly higher after it reaches the next lower step.

  22. Might it not be that the rift valley is formed based on perma frost melting due to the increased heat?

    1. I think that perma frost isn’t really an issue here. As I understand it perma frost effects soil, whilst in this area the bulk of the environment is made up of solid rock.

  23. It also depends how much magma is still in the duke, it could stop then pressure builds up again and end up with another eruption, but at the moment I can’t see it stopping just yet.

    1. Thats it, if the magma is flowing freely very few EQs. Harmonics seem a lot lower today though I do read there is a ban on all new travellers to the area.

  25. Ban could be due to the ground being unstable or they know than we do. Only time will tell. This could stop today or tomorrow or could rumble on for months.

  27. Yeah green taxes are a con especially when other countries pollute more than others, and don’t pay, plus the fact is the world’s biggest polluters are cattle not humans.

      1. It’s partly true. Cows do account for a lot of methane, but they’re hardly the only source. Less than 20% I believe? It varies by country. Agriculture as a whole produces 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases, anyway. Enough to matter, not enough to obviate the desperate need for a global response to this planet-threatening emergency, including drastic revisions to the laws that govern our economic systems, which were cooked up to their own narrow advantage by robber barons in the middle ages who never really let go of their power since, despite the best efforts of the rest of humanity. From this perspective, indulging in anti-scientific skepticism or denial is deeply irresponsible, and supporting the current distorted power structure is very very likely not an act of self-interest. But my dad was raised near the banks of the Clyde, so you’ll have to forgive my views, they’re inherited.

        Please let’s keep climate out of this. Volcanoes don’t care about it even if they affect it, and so for me they’re a vacation from a wearisome subject, especially when my fellow humans act so addled about it.

  29. Seismic activity seems to be picking up a bit. No it’s not an urban myth cattle do produce vast amounts of methane, with all that grass they eat and fermenting in there guts, that’s the nasty by-product (ie they fart like he’ll).

    1. Actually, they belch, not fart. But the methane mostly comes from the manure lagoons. Keep a reasonable number of cattle on grass, instead of thousands constrained in a small area on dirt, and their manure would not be producing methane (and contaminating the groundwater for miles around).

  33. It’s a full moon on Monday the with, if this keeps going I wonder if that will have an effect with what’s going on in Iceland.

  34. It’s a full moon on Monday the 8th.I wonder if this will effect with what’s going on in Iceland thoughts please.

    1. It will have no effect whatsoever, unless you’re claiming that the extra photons reflected by the full moon possess enough energy to shift tons of rock to a non-negligible degree. (Hint: they don’t.)

    2. As the moon itself (mass volume) does not change over time, there will be no extra effect except illuminated or not illuminated state! New moon means the moon is not illuminated (from the earth viewing perspective), and does not mean the moon is not there!

      Fun fact, the dark side of the moon is not always dark ; ). It is fully illuminated by the sun, when we see (or not; )) a new moon.

      Gravitational forces, e.g. differences, which would induce acceleration or decelleration of elements providing mass, are unsignificant in this small scale. Test it yourself with a magnet, even a very small one will overcome even the gravitational force of the complete earth

      1. There are active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io purely due to tidal flexing between Jupiter and the other moons, and the sub-ice ocean on Europa has a similar cause. Tides are actually pretty powerful. Whether the Moon’s tides can affect volcanoes as much as they do our oceans is another question.

      2. “There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact, it’s all dark”

      3. jupiters gravitational force is much much higher, e.g. the mass is more than 300 times the mass of earth, plus Io as a consequence is orbiting jupiter within 1,7 earth days, not 30 as our moon. for Europa, its even worse!
        Io, by the way has a synchronized rotation, therefore, the tidal forces are absolutly symetric. tidal waves would stay at the same spot all the time on Io…
        In addition, Jupiters magnetosphere is way stronger than earth`s.
        Anyway it has still to be found which is actually the strongest contributer to the heating process of the galilean moons magnetic field or tidal forces.

        And comparing apples with apples, the effect of these moons on their planet is ~0 when it comes to gravitational influence on a sclae of few 10th km.

      4. But the Earth – Moon distance does change, although not associated directly with the phase. When the Moon is farest away the force of gravity will be approc e80% of that when closest to the Earth.

      5. mhh, eccentricity of the moon orbit is defined by the two parameters below providing max and min distance:

        Periapsis 363.300 km
        Apoapsis 405.500 km

        basic gravitational Force (Fg) equals grvitational konstant(G) multiplied with mass of earth and mass of the moon devided by the distance to the power of 2.

        Fg=G*m1*m2/r^2

        For Periapsis and Apoapsis the resulting factor (keeping G, m1 and m2 konstant) is ~1.25, e.g. 25%.

        The moon orbital period is 27,3 days in which the moon is runs trough the nearest and farest point of the orbit.

        The perigäum shifts ~40°/ year in the earth reference

        Therfore, I disagree

        If moon would change gravitational impact by 80%, this would mean a factor 3 higher orbit eccentricity required, which would lead to an unstable orbit compount of earth and moon! And this is luckily not the case : )

      6. Hi Robo,
        I was not saying the force would change by 80%.
        I was trying to say the force at Apoapsis would be 80% of that at Periapsis..
        This agrees with your calculations ie. 1/1.25 ~ 80%.

  35. Whats happening to the NE of askja I thought this was an extension of the dyke, but there no longer seems to be a connection in the last 48 hours of EQ activity is this activity a new source from below.

  36. Not sure about that, but it seems to be getting more active around the caldera at Barda.

  37. Either Magma is flowly freely from the dyke to the new location or its a new source of magma I think.

  38. There has been seismic activity around there, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if the scientists are out due to the fog. Everything is ifs and it’s at the moment, everything is very fluid.

  39. If Bardabunga collapses, will it be where the caldera is, or will it be slightly north where it’s magma chamber presumably is. i.e. in the centre of the ring of earthquakes. Presumably being on a rift, the magma usually erupts slightly off centre of the magma chamber, because it is easier to run along the rift a short way before emerging?

  41. Katla is quite south and some west of Bar – Askja is north.
    There is no warning on Katla – there is a yellow alert on Askja.
    Scientists were evac to Askja.
    Katla has an earthquake.
    I am no kind of ologist – just a watcher.
    I cannot compute these facts. Perhaps no one can.
    Still fog – I see very faint glimpse of fire.
    I do remember from 2010 that Katla would produce a monster blow.

  43. It’s not unusual to get a few quakes under Katla from time to time, so likely completely unrelated to ongoing activities.

  44. I think at the moment Kayla is stable, at the moment the focus is on Barda and Askja, but being Iceland anything change, also there was a rift formed near and under the glacier where there is a new cauldron. It would be interesting if that has developed further or not. It is Orange alert for Barda and yellow alert for Askja.

  45. Yes I wonder if something is happening around Barda, activity is starting to pick up.

  46. Please do not report every little earthquake here in Iceland.
    Is like a fallen over bicycle in china.

    1. So true! Only really interested in a continuos run of 3+ in the caldera or anything 4+ anywhere else. Quakes smaller than 3 happen frequently in Oceland all over.

    2. In fairness in that region 10 EQ’s in the last 24 hours.

      5 in the last hour or so.

      Thursday
      04.09.2014 11:07:09 63.605 -19.127 1.1 km 0.6 90.02 3.1 km NNW of Hábunga
      Thursday
      04.09.2014 10:42:23 63.646 -19.103 1.1 km 0.8 90.02 7.3 km E of Goðabunga
      Thursday
      04.09.2014 10:40:32 63.633 -19.113 1.1 km 1.5 90.04 5.9 km N of Hábunga
      Thursday
      04.09.2014 10:24:33 63.631 -19.092 1.1 km 0.2 89.16 5.7 km N of Hábunga
      Thursday
      04.09.2014 09:50:30 63.659 -19.110 0.2 km 3.0 99.0 7.2 km ENE of Goðabunga

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

  47. Hi Jon, appreciate all the good work you’ve been doing! Couple of questions here if you don’t mind.

    1) A while ago now you mentioned that the dyke had entered the fissure swarm of Askja. Is there any update on this? To my untrained eye it looks as if the dyke passed through an eq “dead zone” before triggering eqs again NE of Askja, yet I’ve seen others mention that the eqs in that region are not connected at all to the current events propagating from bardarbunga.

    2) IMO mentioned that pressure is building in the system and the dyke has grown despite the current fissure eruption. With this in mind, what is the explanation for the major (relative) drop off in seismic activity, and does the aforementioned statement almost make it inevitable that we shall see a more substantial eruption at some stage in the short-term future?

    3) What are your thoughts right now on this “going Laki”? Have there been any signs of the mantle getting involved in the supply to the dyke? I’ve noted several very deep quakes but I’m not entirely sure what I should be looking for in this regard.

    Many thanks Jon, apologies for all the questions, I’m still learning!

    1. Here are the answers.

      1: That has stopped. The dyke is not advancing and has not been doing so now for almost a week.

      2: The drop in earthquake activity is due to the eruption. Magma has an way out and that eases the pressure. The reason for current earthquake activity appears to be that more magma is flowing in than out. This is creating a pressure build up inside the dyke.

      3: Laki was a fissure eruption, a big one. It was also a dyke. What happened there was the eruption was both big and lasted for a long time (6 – 8 months). I don’t think current eruption is going to go that way. As for the magma, chemical analyse of it has shown that is fresh out of hot plume under Iceland and has not stopped for a long time inside Báðarbunga magma chamber. That is also the reason why the magma in this eruption is so rich in dangerous gases.

  48. Something I’ve noticed is that the most recent quakes, especially the larger ones at Bárðarbunga, seem to be deeper than before. I don’t know whether that is significant or if I’m mistaken about it to begin with, by that’s what I think I’m seeing.

    1. Thursday 04.09.2014 03:44:47 64.676 -17.474 8.0 km 4.8
      Thursday 04.09.2014 06:18:02 64.676 -17.419 9.0 km 4.3
      Thursday 04.09.2014 08:44:39 64.628 -17.506 5.4 km 4.0
      Thursday 04.09.2014 10:28:59 64.670 -17.456 4.6 km 4.4
      \

  49. I totally agree with you Wial,this warming is part of the earth cycle, eventually the earth will cool again have another ice age. Sometimes these scientists treat people as idiots, any sane person knows this is just the circle of life.

    2. What’s happening now is not unprecedented in Earth’s history, but when it’s happened it’s led to mass extinctions, e.g. the Permian and the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum — and there’s no question whatsoever humans are causing it this time, and that we have the power to stop it, just not the political will. People die, which is natural; that doesn’t justify murder.

      1. The conditions we’re creating are unprecedented in the history of our species, let alone our subspecies. Nothing like them happened in the ice ages or interglacials going back at least 500,000 years. Let alone the holocene, the very recent 12 k year phase of stability that made civilization possible. And it won’t be a nice tropical planet, it will be mostly deserts and dead oceans, flooded cities, maybe even with diminished atmospheric oxygen. But it’s natural, right?

        OK I’ve probably made enemies here I did not want to make and hurt feelings I had no reason or right to hurt — so I’ll try really hard to shut about this. Just know how climate “skepticism” sounds to some of us and try to be kind enough to leave it be.

        Back to volcanoes!!

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