Posted on by Jón Frímann

Large cauldron has formed in Dyngjujökull glacier (south of current eruption)

According to latest news a large cauldron has formed in Dyngjujökull glacier. The cauldron is about 1 km wide and it is deep (no mention of how deep it is in the news).

Update 1: No eruption has yet started. It is however now expected to start without warning. The cauldron are forming due an rift valley formation in this area.

I will post more information about is when I have more details.

Article updated at 12:40 UTC.
Article updated at 12:42 UTC.

92 Replies to “Large cauldron has formed in Dyngjujökull glacier (south of current eruption)”

  1. The cauldron is about 1 km wide and it is deep (not sad how deep in the news).
    (No mention of depth in the news)
    Or
    (Not said how deep in the news)

  2. Waiting with excitement for the next installment of the show that is happening in Iceland,what’s the status on Bardarbunga caldera,how stable is it or is she ready to blow.

  3. Jon, can you clarify that article please? Are they really talking about a great rift valley under the ice or actually getting muddled up with the width of the deep underground widening according to the new model? Where a great rift valley is a normal consequence of the plate activity?

  4. Hi Jon, sorry mother nature disturbed your rest. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen!

  5. So maybe the cloud formations I metioned earlier today were related to gas escapes from under the ice.

    Someone should do some researce into this topic.

  6. Its geologically known that the Dettifoss valley was formed by trillions of tonnes of meltwater which poured down off the Vatnajökull glacier during previous eruptions, with something in the comparison of the entire amazon river (plus delta) flowing through the Vatnajökull region every 3 days.

    This could be the start of a new ‘cycle’ of one of those megafloods about to begin once again, adding on the current ongoing fissure it certain would be interesting.

  9. Oh please, can anybody tell me where on cam 1 the volcano exactly is. I am already following this blog since Katla was restless and so excited now!

    1. Maybe you’re looking at the wrong cam. Try http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga/ and http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga-2/

      and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKtGqoxV_qo

      At this writing at least you can’t miss where the fissure eruption is happening, which is down in a valley between volcanoes. The cams are placed on a mountain named Vaðalda to the north east of the eruption.

      This map has place names http://atlas.lmi.is/kortasja_en/?x=597854.7685280954&y=483198.1473930675&l=4&anno=1&bm=2

      1. At this moment it’s mostly steam but the lava fountains have been coming and going.

        As for the new cauldron, if that’s what you’re asking, (I haven’t had coffee yet) that’s an excellent question. Does anyone know if there’s a cam that has where that might start in view?

    2. Jenkie, cam 1 is pointing just about due south. This glacial deformation that is being talked about here would be almost center cam. So an eruption here should show up nicely. Big B is somewhat obscured by steam and clouds, but it is located behind current eruption area. Part of it looks visible just to the left.

  11. Thnx for all the interesting information and conversation up here. And . . Jon: hope you will have your 1-day holiday soon, because today it seems it won’t work.

  12. Trying to conceptualize all that is going on and I have one question—Does anyone think magnetic north and south pole shift could have anything to with the Bardarbunga situation? I may be way off on this but asking the question anyway, I’m sorry in advance if it is a dumb question.

  14. I am new to this; however, looks like low frequency tremor is increasing dramatically. Precursor or sign of much bigger eruptive activity?

    1. Am no expert but I thought low frequency was related to magma movement so there is a big increase in activity.

  15. Something is going on under the glacier especially when you look on the icelandic seismology page and you see, GPS measurements show that the volume of the dyke intrusion has increased since the beginning of the eruption; this signifies that more magma is entering the dyke than is being erupted.which must mean pressure must be building somewhere.

  16. Large cauldron has formed in Dyngjujökull glacier (south of current eruption)
    KATLA is SE
    May be meaningless info

    Here are Iceland volcanos. KATLA is at the south end. Bard is sort of NE.
    It would not seem Katla will be involved, but it might. Since this Iceland vol began erupting there was a 5.3 earthquake mid-Atlantic. Iceland is on that same fracture zone.
    There have been some major earthquakes in the south Atlantic – Antarctica- the past year.
    Earth itself seems as a bucking bronco – wild horse – in activity.
    http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv110/zcry/earth/icevol.jpg

    Jon can you make that map visible?
    This is the only html I know for images

      2. I can follow the link and it shows Iceland and his riftzones. Is it that?
        I have only once for a short time seen pictures (not yours) between the comments, I think that is not possible…

      3. It’s possible in WordPress, but maybe photobucket doesn’t cooperate well, or this blog theme doesn’t allow it.

  18. Trying not to read too much into what could turn out to be nothing, but at those new plumes of smoke in the background on the mountainside? On Bárðarbunga-2? Or clouds? I’ve been watching for a few minutes and I can’t tell.

      1. And maybe it is visible — checking against my screenshots from the last few days, it seems to me (could be a trick of the light) there’s a darker area at the edge of the glacier than there used to be — slightly to the left of center of the image on http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga/ above the whitish diagonal streak and to the left of the raindrop on the cam. And if my eyes don’t fool me it’s getting darker as I watch.

      2. (I found an earlier screenshot from the 31st with the same dark streak, so that’s nothing new as it turns out).

  21. Fréttastofa RÚV ‏@RUVfrettir

    #Holuhraun: #Bardarbunga Scientists advised to leave the surrounding of the eruption – increased tremor detected. More to follow.

  22. Don’t know how to paste it here but Twitter feed reports scientist are being told to leave the area.

  24. Liz, just saw the plume way in the back ground, this is getting interesting. Wonder what else is about to go off.

  25. Geologists working near the Holuhraun eruption north of Vatnajokull have been advised to leave, as increased volcanic tremor has been detected in the vicinity. GPS measurements show that the magma intrusion has increased since the beginning of the current eruption and a rift valley has formed.

  26. Sep 03, 2014 Bardarbunga volcano update John Seach
    Fissure eruption decreases, but earthquakes pick up again – what’s next?
    Important changes seem to be under way. The fissure eruption with its spectacular lava emission at the surface still continues, but has decreased a lot since the first two days
    At the same time, earthquake and deformation activity that had decreased yesterday have picked up again. This is likely because the internal pressure is no longer efficiently released and intruding magma no longer erupted at the same rate as added underground.
    The scenario of a new eruption along new fissures, possibly under the ice, or even at Bárdarbunga or Asjka volcanoes, is considered a possible scenario
    http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/news.html

  27. What is the mountain that is visible on the extreme right on Bárðarbunga-2? I’ve been poring over maps and thought I had figured it out, but now I’m not sure.

      1. But if the webcams are on Vaðalda, I would think they’d have to be turned almost due west for Askja to be visible.

      2. Yes, but until the eruption started, this camera was panning round in a wide arc from Kverkfjoll to Askja. A comparison of the currnt view with maps of the eruption sites pretty much confirms that it’s Askja.

      3. I saw it panning, but if you’re right, the cameras can’t possibly be on Vaðalda.

  29. That’s indeed what I meant 😉 I have been watching the above links at the fissure and the lava fountains. But I am indeed wondering if the caldera erupt, in which direction that will be.

    1. If something happens next it could be near the center of http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga/ which I believe is where the newly discovered crack extends under the glacier (the edge of the glacier forms the whitish area below the sky haze at the moment (sometimes you can see the further mountain but not now) — so not from caldera proper, which is at a much higher elevation and further off, but it would be explosive if it happened under the glacier (let alone the caldera of course).

      I just found a picture from the 31st that has the dark streak on the glacier, so contrary to my prior speculation that’s nothing new, per se, but it’s still probably more or less where the crack is. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong!

    2. Thanks! My impression was the area of the existing fissure eruption and lava, e.g. shown in cam 2, is a small subset of the box you drew — but then given breaking events any of that area could open up.

      So that’s Kistufell in the background on cam2?

    3. Not sure where you are looking….to the right and back is Askja….unless you are talking about a different area on Cam2….but behind and to the right of the fissure eruption is Askja.

      2. The fissure eruption is just at the bottom of Askja….if you look at all the aerial maps and all the maps put out by IMO, it is Askja on the cam2….in the map you have made you need to move somethings about. And the new graben is in the area about where you have your fissure eruption. I will find you some links. But, that is Askja on Bardarbuna Cam2

      5. Askja is not in view on any of the web cameras. They all point in the direction of Bárðarbunga volcano. But there is also some view of Kverkfjöll volcano in Bárðarbunga 1 web camera, but it is on the edge of the camera.

      8. Yes, Askja is in the top right corner…but the webcam is at Vadalda looking to the glacier. Askja has no glacier. It’s a great caldera, sometimes with snow in the summer, within is a large lake and a little lake with warm water.
        What you see at the background of the cams is all Vatnajökull glacier with his glaciers and some volcanos under his icecap.

      9. There is no way possible that Kritufell would be that close to the fissure eruption…none whatsoever.

      10. Heather, it’s not easy to identify the mountains or to see what is near or far away. In the background of the cam you see allover a small edge of the flat looking glacier and above the sky. And then at the right a mountain is direct at the side of the glacier – this is Kistufell. If it is Trölladyngja there must be a little bit landscape between glacier and mountain…

        Here is a picture from 2011. I’m standing at Kverkfjöll glacier looking to Askja. At the right side you see Herdubreid.
        http://abload.de/img/viewfromkverkfjllwithqijvj.jpg
        From left you see the Dyngjujökullglacier in white and black at the end. Left from the little sandstorms is the Holuhraun-Lavafield with the fissure.
        Bardabunga is left outside of the picture.

      11. Another thing:
        Cam 2 has zoomed in really hard. So all distances switch together. So it looks like Kistufell is really near but this is perhaps an optical illusion.

      1. But they are both labeled Vaðalda on my link. One is north of Askja and the other one east of it.

      2. If I zoom your maplink out I see another place, but at SW of Vatnajökull…this could not be the place…
        In Iceland you find all names very often. Because they mean something like “eyja (island in english)-fjadla- (mountains)-jökull (glacier)” . It’s because the icelandic is an very old language. So they named the places after the things around.
        I searched some places for my last travel to iceland and it’s not easy to find the right one… 🙂
        But the webcam is at the Vadalda (south-)east of Askja.

      3. Thank you, that’s where I thought it must be. So we have a very foreshortened view of the fissure. Makes it all the more impressive.

  37. I have been unable to see any of the Mila webcams for 3 days running – I keep getting a message “server not found :rtmpt//128.199.166.176:80/mila/
    I have tried the links provided here, and also searching it myself – it is very frustrating – I also want to see what everybody is talking about – please help?

    I have very fast broadband (down load speed is normally in excess of 30 mbps), so it should not be a problem, and I do not experience problems with any other sites

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