Posted on by Jón Frímann

Ash cloud confirmed from Grímsfjall volcano

A eruption ash cloud has been confirmed from Grímsfjall volcano. I do not know how high it currently is. But Icelandic news is reporting that the cloud is rising fast and high (estimated 3000 – 4000 meters and rising). Explosions have been seen from good distance.

Update 1: They estimate that there are 10 to 12 hours until the glacier flood appears from this eruption. The ash cloud can be tracked with lighting map here.

News about this.

Strókur rís hátt yfir Grímsvötnum (Rúv.is, picture)
Tíu til tólf klukkutímar í hlaup (Rúv.is, new picture)
Allir viðbragðsaðilar komnir af stað vegna gossins (Vísir.is, Picture)
Mjög öflug gosstöð (mbl.is, New picture)

Updated at 19:41 UTC.
Updated at 19:53 UTC.
Updated 20:21 UTC.

212 Replies to “Ash cloud confirmed from Grímsfjall volcano”

  1. joining the viewing here- or at least some of it – from on the road. Nice to have the eruption wait until spring and long daylight.

  3. More violent, higher column, quicker to develop. Can’t wait for those aireal photos!

  4. It looks to me that from the Mila cam things are getting bad. Worse than from the cam pointed by Jón. Could it be happening at a different location?

  7. The ash-haze is getting closer at Mila’s webcam.. It’s a spectacular view, very frightening hehe. 😀

    1. Peiter, are you in Iceland? If so, your adrenaline must be flowing a tad high 🙂 I hope all in Iceland don’t get affected too much by this

  8. There is a whirlpool forming at Jökulsárlón. Birds seem to be getting confused.
    Could that mean a shift from tides?

  12. Jon, subsequent to the quakes at Grimsvotn, there has been an uptick at Katla such as the one below. I know your busy, but if you can quickly comment on if these are artifacts or not.

    Saturday
    21.05.2011 18:41:24 63.685 -19.201 4.1 km 2.7 61.0 5.6 km NNE of Goðabunga

    1. Most likey a fake earthquake. The volcano tremor from this eruption can be seen on SIL stations over most of Iceland I think.

      The Hekla web cam server having issues it seems.

  13. Oh, that’s a shame! Perhaps this is a stupid question, but is it ever really possible to actually see molten lava (I mean in person, not on tv..)?

    Thanks!

    1. It is, but not with this eruption probably. Beneath an ice cap the magma interacts with the ice and forms ash, so all the actual lava dissapears. But with effusive eruptions like the Fimmvorduhals eruption or Krafla etc, it is very well possible.

      1. Thanks Pieter, I’m currently on holiday in Iceland, and am pretty excited about the volcano! (My previous comment was supposed to be in reply to your last reply, but it didn’t work for some reason!)

        Also, what is a fake earthquake?

  15. I wonder if the people in the campervans on the Jokulsarlon webcam know that there’s been an eruption of whether they’ll just wander out into a dark ashy landscape in the morning!

  17. Now the ash has reached the mila-cam at Jökulsárlón and the sleeping campers 🙂
    Spooky look. I would love to be there right now!

  20. According to DV.is the ash is fine. I do not know if it is like Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash. But that is going to be clear in next few days what type of eruption this is.

  21. Maybe nothing, but looking webcam at Jökulsárlón and clicking on the link for Bláa Lónið to see the light comparison, there is new links that have a appeared as Eldgos í Grímsvötnum. Not working, but promising no?

  23. There is a intermittent pattern in this eruption. Something that I have not seen before I Grímsvötn eruption before. I do not know if it is a reason to worry about it.

      1. That’s a very useful page, but I’ve been unable to find a tremor plot showing a shorter period of time (24-48 hours, for example) like during the last Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

  26. Anyone who has a link that shows the ash cloud? Is this volcano a VEI 3? Eya was VEI 4?

  27. Wow, exciting news, but I am flying from Chicago to Paris on Monday! Any ideas yet on how much and where air traffic will be disrupted?

    1. I think this just due to air distribution close to the volcano. I do not know how many vents are active at the moment in Grímsfjall volcano at the moment.

  32. Certainly exciting times for Iceland! What is the average length of Grimsvotn eruptions?

  35. According to news on Rúv the ash plume from Grímsfjall volcano is most likely the highest since Hekla volcano eruption in the year 1947.

    They are also estimating on observation that the current eruption in Grímsfjall volcano might be slightly larger then when it was at the most in Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in the year 2010.

    1. Jon, when might we know more info on the ash composition which would affect predictions for the ash traveling over europe.

      Right now, all the U.S. news articles I have read are minimizing the affect of this eruption due to ash saying either it is too small of an eruption, won’t last long, the ash particles are too big to float over europe or that the affect from Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption on air traffic was very rare.

      I don’t think one can assume all this until this plays out more.

      Are you going to get any sleep tonight ? 🙂

  37. BBC showed short aerial video sequence at 1am local – looked like double plume- white.

    2. If we look at the strongest earthquake locations on the vedur.is website, it’s possible that there might be indeed two plumes.

      1. Ooops, sorry Jón, i made a mistake in my calculations, you´re right, 20 km is 65000 feet…. WOW!! so then the discharge from the glacier should be really a big one…

      4. That photo gives me the impression of a second white cloud in the rear, with a shadow of the plume column projected onto it. The EQ map also suggests to me that ther may be two foci .

  41. What is the maximum VEI eruption that can occur at Grimsfjall?

  44. My friends, oh my God here in Selfoss! We can see a huge ash cloud, I estimate at least 10-15 km high. I even saw it today when we drove from Reykjavik, yes I saw it from Reykjavik. And the lightnings we start seeing it from the Blue Mountains. 10 min ago, it just became much bigger and larger. It seems there are two sites of eruption from what I saw from here now… I am going to sleep, tomorrow we drive east at 5am

  45. Yes I confirm the local visual sightning of two plumes…. I think its Grimsvotn and Gjalp.

  46. It seems a major part in the left side (maybe Gjalp) and something smaller to the right. Why do I assume this, because looking at where I am seeing it seems the left part where explosions are happening is far too north for being the central volcano of Grimsvotn. But I might be wrong… I am so excited that its difficult for me to think clearly

    1. On the EQ map the smaller focus appears to be in centre of triangle formed by Grimsvotn,Hamarinn and Bordabunga. Is that where you see the activity?

  48. Looking at the different tremor graphs, it almost looks like the whole of Iceland shook a little.

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