Posted on by Jón Frímann

Daily Bárðarbunga update on 16-September-2014

This is the current status of Bárðarbunga volcano. This information might get outdated quickly if anything major happens. They are good now.

Currant status of Bárðarbunga volcano at 13:47 UTC

  • There is now one month since activity started in Bárðarbunga volcano. Around 20.000 earthquakes have been detected in this one month. Normal quiet year in Iceland has around 12.000 earthquakes. There have been around 229 earthquakes larger than magnitude 3,0. Almost all of them have taken place in Bárðarbunga volcano and in the ring fault that has formed.
  • It is expected that rift episode that is now taking place north of Bárðarbunga is going to last for months. So it is important to be patience when waiting for nature to do its thing.
  • Bárðarbunga volcano caldera is currently dropping around 50cm/day. That might change without warning.
  • The eruption in Holuhraun is ending slowly. It is expected that it is going to end in next few days. This does not mean the eruption is over, it means there is now increased risk of new eruption along the dyke. There is high risk of any new eruption taking place under the glacier. Since most of the dyke is under the Vatnajökull glacier.
  • ESA has interesting article about the SO2 pollution here.
  • Largest earthquake today had the magnitude 4,8 at 10:36 UTC. It is the largest earthquake so far. Second largest earthquake took place at 09:13 UTC and had the magnitude of 3,6.
  • Harmonic tremor data suggest that pressure might be increasing again inside Bárðarbunga volcano system. That is not good news and might start an eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano caldera.
  • Rifting episode has not yet started south of Bárðarbunga volcano. When that is going to start I do not know. I do however expect it to happen soon, so there is risk of eruption both north and south og Bárðarbunga, along with eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano it self. This does not mean that all areas are going to erupting at the same time, that might happen in some cases.

Update at 21:42 UTC

  • Largest earthquake so far is a magnitude 5,2 that took place at 14:47 UTC. More earthquakes have been taking place in the last hour, but there magnitude has not been confirmed yet.

No other updates at present time. I will add new updates as needed.

Still more on comments

Please keep off-topic discussion to a minimal amount (if you really have to go off-topic). This is not the website to talk about religion or politics. There is plenty of space to that elsewhere on the internet. So please keep your comment on-topic. Also remind people to be nice to each other. I will add repeated offenders to the “your comment go directly to the spam bin” list. I have to have some control over the comment. Since the eruption and activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to last for several months.

I also suggest to people to take it easy. Nature is going to do its thing in Bárðarbunga volcano in its own time and way. There is nothing we can do about it, expect maybe get the hell out of the way if you are so unlucky to be close to Bárðarbunga volcano when it starts erupting.

Article updated at 21:45 UTC.

383 Replies to “Daily Bárðarbunga update on 16-September-2014”

      1. Wish I could look the whole night – follow the lava stream perhaps until the Jökulsa…but really sometimes I have to go to bed…oh, just another hour or so…

    3. It looks like the first days of the eruption. The long fissure seems to be active again.

  3. +1

    (The difficulty in connecting to the Mila cameras and low rez youtube streams makes the experience disappointing. Please improve it if you can Mila. Thank you)

  4. There is a bigger central crater being formed now, I think. Perhaps in the end a shield volcano is born after all.

  5. So I’ve noticed they are manually checking all earthquakes at Vatnajokull, I don’t believe that was happening previously. Is that an indication the folks at IMO are thinking relatively soon for a major event (like caldera collapse?)

    Just curious, and thanks….

    1. My guess is since it was a white light it was man made and maybe a low flying aircraft. A chopper or plane.

  8. I have been checking in here on a daily basis. This eruption and the possibilities of what can happen makes for a sort of “sit on the edge of your seat” outcome. I do hope the people in Iceland will be ok in spite of the SO2. It is nasty stuff.

    Jon, do you think the ring of quakes could be partly due to landslides taking place as the caldera floor collapses? Landslides can show up on a seismic network, though I would think they would create a different signature. I don’t know about creating 5+ quakes, either.

    1. My immediate response to your question was to say, no, of course there will not be landslides under all that ice! The glacier will be frozen to the rock, there will be no space for a gravity-led slide.
      But then I thought of all the possible melt from hydrothermal activity which may be going on, creating a ‘lake’ under the ice, and am now doubting my first reaction.
      I’m now thinking of all that goes on at the margins of melting glaciers, the moulins and ice caves that can result, and the movement of debris and sediments within and without that ice and melt.
      I recall a marvellous BBC programme with Prof Iain Stewart exploring these things, I’ll see if I can find it.

  10. Another thing I would be curious about is watching carefully the edge of the glacier immediately above the dike formation for any indication of additional geothermal heat. Do we see any change that might show enhanced melting of the thin ice at the glacier edge in the area immediately above the dike? I noticed we haven’t heard any word lately on any new cauldrons or any change in the existing ones. I guess this is information that regular news outlets might not report as the average person might find this boring.

    Is there any place that would publish a daily photographic survey of the area online?

  12. Additional to my photo gallery with brandnew pictures of the eruption …

    ( http://www.lukas-gawenda.de/bildergalerie/vulkanausbruch-island/ )

    … you can find all multiplexed information with links to important updates and official news on the following page:

    http://www.lukas-gawenda.de/links/island-vulkan-erdbeben/

    Kind regards,
    Lukas

    P.S.: Subscribe my newsletter to stay up to date regarding further new pictures of the ongoing eruption in Iceland:

    http://www.lukas-gawenda.de/newsletter/

  14. You are looking two or three light points far the rift fault?
    Whats the hell is this? the fault is incresing??

  15. Eruption continues on with some vigor. Looks like the plain is filling up more to the south. At some point a lake will form, if this continues like this. And that lake could be a lot closer to the glacier with the new outflow’s position further south.

    1. This is the general consensus with the field scientists. That is also what happens in fissure eruptions in rifting zone episodes like the one that is now taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm system.

  20. https://f1.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/uploads/monthly_08_2014/post-2809-0-87733700-1409066774.jpg

    This was elaborated after Krafla fires. The authors predicted extensional forces (rifting) would occur somewhere near Bardarbunga and readjustments also at Tjornes and SISZ.

    We have seen the activity in SISZ in 2000, 2008, and the rifting that just started south of Askja. We remain to see their modelled predicted rifting southwest of Bardarbunga and large tectonic movements at Tjornes.

    1. I noticed the same thing, the movement seems to indicate expansion east of the caldera affecting a large area

  29. Just got a notification of a 4.5 at Basar, depth 1km. Anything to do with what’s going on here

    3. I don’t think it stopped. Looks like fog or something is obstructing the view. Lights from R2D2 got dim / disappeared, too.

  34. Caldera GPS is going up and down. Maybe due to this earthquake another drop really possible…now unser 1900 m. Just wait a while.

  36. I can still see r2d2 flashing but the screen is totally black. cant see anything at all could be low cloud i expect

  37. Very thick fog rolled in, so no visibility on cams for the time being. It may lift a little here and there. Big B banging out more intense quakes again.

  38. I wonder if it is just a visibility thing, if so whats causing it, the lights on the trailer B1 are also a little dimmer

      1. Not a stupid question!
        UTC is Coordinated Universal Time. Scientists use it, instead of local time, so that everyone around the world know “when” an event happened.
        It’s also the same as Zulu Time, used in aviation, and for the most part, the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

        So, on the graph I linked, you read it from top to bottom, and left to right. Each line shows 15 minutes.
        The gold-colored line that the largest quake is on, begins at 21:30 on the left-hand edge. Each black vertical dashed line counts off a minute.
        So that graph shows that the Mag 5.4 quake struck at 21:34 and approximately 10 seconds UTC, at the URH station.

        I hope my explanation doesn’t leave you more confused. 🙂

      2. It began on 21:34. Then the vertical lines go up and down on the UTC. The line goes up off the chart, then down off the chart. This I do not understand. How does the vertical rise and fall relate to UTC?

  44. 16.09.2014 21:34:12 64.692 -17.378 7.7 km 5.4 99.0 9.2 km NE of Bárðarbunga
    16.09.2014 21:33:51 63.728 -19.323 1.1 km 4.5 65.03 9.6 km NE of Básar

  45. Is this “fog” rolling in or did we just have something opening up under the ice causing a large steam cloud? I guess we will know at first light.

      1. Thanks Jon. How do you recognise it as a ghost?

        I noticed there is no “star” and the depth changed from 7.7 to 1.1 km. The quality dropped a % unit as well.

  49. I’m not so sure about it being fog – I would expect to see a good reflective glow from R2D2s lights.

    1. On B1, I can just about see flashes of the R2D2.

      Zoomed in on B2, full screen, I can see tiny flashes of red dotted about all over the place where the fissure should be.

      I think it’s still going.

    1. another fissure behind the cams somewhere, throwing ash around? don’t think so … In this time of year fog can be very dense however, and there is much smoke in the air with little wind… that could easily fall down to the valdalda-top where mila cams are.

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