Posted on by Jón Frímann

Update on Askja and Bárðarbunga volcanoes at 17:49 UTC

This information is going to get outdated quickly.

This is the weekend edition of my regular updates on activity in Bárðarbunga and Askja volcano. They are shorter and might not contain all the information on what is going on.

Current status on Askja volcano

  • Askja continues to be on Yellow alert.
  • Dyke does not seems to have any progress moving into Askja volcano system. Reason why that is are unknown.
  • Earthquake activity appears to have dropped in Askja for the past 24 hour period.

Current status on Bárðarbunga volcano

  • Largest earthquake for the past 24 hours is a magnitude 5,4 earthquake that took place at 07:03 UTC. It took place in south-west part of Bárðarbunga volcano. It did appear clearly on my geophones and they can be viewed here.
  • Eruption has been confirmed to have taken place on 23-August-2014. That eruption did not manage to break the trough the glacier since it is 400 to 600 meters thick were the eruption took place.
  • Most earthquake activity is taking place on 15 km long line in the Dyke, starting at the location were the eruption took place and goes some 15 km south from that location. Dyke does not seems to be moving north at the moment.
  • Eruption is now considered more likely in Bárðarbunga volcano it self than before.
  • Last large eruption that took place in Bárðarbunga volcano was in 1717. According to Global Volcanism Program that eruption was an VEI 3 eruption.
  • Eruption can happen in slopes of Bárðarbunga volcano, also in its caldera. The glacier in the caldera is up to 800 meters thick (+- 100 meters).
  • Earthquake activity is stable, with over 1000 to 2000 earthquakes recorded daily so far.

GPS data

Icelandic Met Office has released GPS data and it can be viewed here.

Storm warning

There is going to be a storm in Iceland on Sunday. This means fewer earthquakes are going to be detected due the wind noise.

News bits in English

Eruption at Bardarbunga now more likely (Rúv.is)
Fresh ice cracks in Bárðarbunga? (mbl.is)

Updates during the weekend

I am going to post updates during the weekends. I do however need to take a little break since I’ve been working and writing about Bárðarbunga for the past two weeks. So updates on weekends are going to be shorter and less detailed than on working days (Monday – Fridays). If eruption happens I am going to post information about that eruption soon as I become aware of it and details soon as possible.

Article updated at 17:52 UTC.
Article updated at 18:10 UTC.
Article updated at 19:01 UTC. I corrected information about the dyke earthquake location.

206 Replies to “Update on Askja and Bárðarbunga volcanoes at 17:49 UTC”

  1. O Jon thank you! Beautiful lava fountains!
    The Holuhraun eruption is producing lava fountains.
    The active fissure is 1500 – 1800 meter long,

  3. Iceland issues new Bardarbunga volcano lava alert
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29003031

    Bardarbunga cam 2 and cam is shaking like crazy! Beautiful lava fountains!
    Its so beautiful! I watched LIVE! I am amazed and thrilled. WOW!
    Great beauty can cause major problems, not only in Iceland.
    This fire and magma is coming out of an ice glacier and melting it. I am in AWE.
    I cant get over this! Live cam op zooms in close to the lave fountains sometimes.

  6. As i thought would happen, not able to view any of the Bardarbunga (finally remembered the second ‘R’) webcams on Mila or the youtube feed either.
    Looks like that ex-hurricane is going to give Iceland a bit of a hammering today!

      1. Can’t argue, only reporting what was presented to me as an instant alert 🙂 It won’t show up on the maps until it’s verified so we’ll know the actual intensity then.

  10. What is the location of this new eruption . It is reported 1200-1500 meterr long with fountains up to 60meters. Did it start at the same spot as Friday’s eruption ?

      1. I think, he talks about the ground, that’s shaking (earthquakes), because there have been a lot in the past few ours.
        But I was told, that is normal for that area.
        Quake-swarms occur from time to time.
        Posted by Aska-girl on VC: http://i62.tinypic.com/4q0lma.png
        But, for me…mmmh

  13. is this a dust storm near the fissure or a new fissure is ready?on cam 1 shows a cloud just near the fissure only there

  14. Maybe this is stating the obvious, but if the new eruption is relieving more pressure on the caldera, and we just had a 5.1 in the caldera (nothing new in recent days but still) should we be worrying about the possibility of caldera collapse and a truly massive central volcano eruption sometime soon? Yeah, stating the obvious, sorry.

  16. There is an interesting blue color to the smoke coming from the eruption. I wonder if it is Fluorine gas. That was a big problem in the Laki eruption.

    1. Why this Laki all the time? If it is not Laki it is nothing?. I hope no one gets in harm’s way. Maybe the show will be long and contained.

      1. I had to smile at your comment, Jon. I blame the media for it, for crying out loud, a German ‘newspaper’ called the Bárðarbunga volcano “ashmonster” this week! 😉 The Mt. Tavurvur eruption this week was spectatucal, with huge glowing ashclouds and sonic booms, yet it got lost amid all the hype about Iceland. Nevertheless, the ongoings around Bárðarbung are simply fascinating, and important for scientists to understand further our home planet. And your blog is simply a wonderful source for rookies like me to learn about geology and volcanos! Keep up the great articles! Greetings from Germany! 😉

      2. I agree “Bárðarbunga etc are simply fascinating. But we have to keep calm, stay scientific and which for as little harm for people as possible. It is intresting from a geology point if view and possiby if it gets great it could impact the climate. At least in short term.

      3. if it impacts the climate that could turn out to be a good thing, even if in the short term it causes massive deaths in India and elsewhere — it might buy us a few years time to stop the methane feedback loops from starting in earnest, which would be far worse.

        But we certainly can’t hope for such outcomes, at risk of losing our humanity.

      4. I did not get my information from the media. I was just wondering about gas measurements . No hysteria here.

  17. I think the apparent blue color is where the smoke is thin enough for the dark background to be visible through it. Where it is more dense, it doesn’t appear to me to be blue.

      4. bummer. well at the moment there is nothing much to see anyway due to the bad weather.

      5. @Sascha, Get a Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel and locate the PoP endpoint outside of Germany and than you have fully functional youtube over IPv6.

        Or you can also use other IPv6 providers, just have the tunnel endpoint outside Germany.

  21. I’m watching with interest that developing swarm just to the northeast of askja. Possible site for anew future fissure maybe?

  24. Difficult to say for sure, because of the dust obscuring the view, but there appears to a lot more smoke and steam in the area of the eruption. Can’t tell whether it’s expanding in length or just getting larger along the original location.

  25. Hola is good. Let’s me watch British tv. Set it up to show origin in the US.

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