Posted on by Jón Frímann

Possible eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano

This is early information and it might be wrong! Eruption might not be taking place and this might be a trick of magma movement underground. It is hard to be sure in this case until a visual confirmation is in place.

It appears that an eruption is about to start or has started in Bárðarbunga volcano. The harmonic tremor is going trough the roof at this moment.

dyn.svd.23.08.2014.at.11.09.utc
Harmonic tremor is going in Dyngjuháls SIL station at 11:09 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

kre.svd.23.08.2014.at.11.10.utc
Harmonic tremor is also going up at Kreppuhraun SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

mko.svd.23.08.2014.at.11.10.utc
Harmonic tremor is also going up at Mókollar SIL station at 11:10 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is unclear what is going on at this moment. Nothing has been confirmed yet when this text is written. This might not be an eruption at this point in time, but that might change without warning at any time.

54 Replies to “Possible eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano”

    1. That would be dust, blowing on the valley floor. ( they make up small tornado’s sometimes up to 6/7 in a row )

      2. The volcano is behind the dust storm. There have been what they call in the American west “dust devils” that look like small tornado’s .

  5. It looks like another of those peaks, which however are increasing in strength (speculative: due to widening of the magma channel, or proximity to the surface?)

    If a huge magma volume (VEI 6 scale) is preparing to burst, would you know what it looks like on the instruments? Would it take a long period of tremors?

  7. Even then, will it have to go through the glacier ?

    hard to say what we will see first…depressions, steam, glacial flood, big boom ? live or not or maybe nothing at all ??..We will see .:-)

  9. What a data ride that was, hope the incandescent serpent is feeling friendly today.

      1. you can disable the shaking with the small V-check “shake webcam on updates”

  11. This is not a smooth process that is taking place in Bárðarbunga. But it appears that it is heading for an eruption even if it is not yet started (best to my knowledge at this moment).

    1. Looking over the wind forecast in that camera location view today and it should be around 12 km from 240 degrees. So not strong enough to raise a lot of dust, but there’s a large amount of dust coming up regardless.

  13. Hi, greetings from Estonia! I hope you remember me.

    Are there any webcams that relay true live feed or at least refresh more often than 1 frame/sec?

    1. If it lets go in the fissure first that will lead to reduction in pressure through the conduit and in the caldera, that could accelerate collapse.

  17. Those plumes on the webcam do not look like dust devils to me. Something is happening on the surface.

  18. Who is the daredevil walking in front of the webcam? He picked the right time for a walk on the volcano.

    1. I reckon he’s parked his helicopter behind the cam lol, so he can look brave…

    2. this webcam is not on the volcano. This is just a safe hill for the webcam. The volcano is on the horizon, about 20-30 km’s away.

    1. that webcam says “Kverkfjoll”, which is another volcano. The Bardarbunga lies on the horizon on the right. The current dike formation goes to the rightside of the picture, but mostly out of view. The other image is Northwards from Kverkfjoll, and shows just the end of the Dyngjujokull glacier, so the flood could be seen on that, and possibly some of the eruption if a long enough fissure forms.

    2. It really looks like brown ash coming up at the right side…hm…yes it is a geothermal region, but now …?

  21. Hi, non-pro observer here, may I ask what a decreasing tremor means?

    Thanks,

    Curt

    P.S. Excellent work on this Jon.

    1. It means there is less magma flowing into the dyke at the moment. That appears to be normal process of this, it has at least been the case for one week now. It is going to pick up again in few hours if it holds true to it’s pattern.

  22. It is a peak. I mean it can not have the same energy all the time. It is the highest peak up to now. Before this happened it was a negative trent. Now it is a new story.

    1. Thanks for the quick reply! I guess I didn’t phrase my question correctly, I was more curious if that had implications for what was happening re:magma flow, etc. If it’s just a variation, I understand, I just didn’t know if there were any implications made by the change.

      Thanks,

      Curt

  23. I did see in the news that it was reported yesterday by IMO staff working close to some rivers (setting up monitoring hardware for the rivers) that they smelled sulphur. That means some degassing is taking place already in the crust.

  24. Iceland ATCC said a few minutes ago that aviation code RED has been called and No-fly zone is being drawn up.

  27. We have a flight this evening there for a 8 days trip… is it safe to go? should we change our plans?

  28. Update on the http://en.vedur.is/ site:

    It is believed that a small subglacial lava-eruption has begun under the Dyngjujökull glacier. The aviation color code for the Bárðarbunga volcano has been changed from orange to red.

  30. I mean how long has it been exposed. I think it is a frozen lake on top of the glacier but it has been a long while since I have viewed this cam.

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