Since the eruption in Iceland started, some of us have been wondering about other past volcanic events that we could compare it to, in such a search I came up with an Icelandic eruption that I believe might by a good analogue, and no, it’s not the Krafla Fires.
Currently some of the characteristics of the ongoing eruption in Fagradalsfjall are that it is slow, both in intrusion and eruption, and that new vents keep popping up a considerable time after it started.
The Krafla Fires may seem like an adequate comparison to the Reykjanes Fires, and the current eruption of Fragradallsfjall, given that they all are episodic fissure eruptions, although even Laki was episodic, two-year-long and punctuated by short intense surges, there are thus many ways an eruption may be episodic. Rekyjanes and Krafla also have in common that their lavas are very fluid, some of the most fluid basalts in Iceland, they easily take on the smooth pahoehoe texture, even at high rates, and with very low explosivity, fountains not exceeding a height of 200 meters. But otherwise their similarities end there. Although it is not how the situation in Fragradallsfjall will turn out the Krafla Fires is one of the most fascinating volcanic events that I know of, so I will delve into them.
The Krafla Fires
Krafla is a basaltic caldera system, with just a bit of rhyolite. Although somewhat unappreciable in the landscape, its vast caldera collapse is 10 kilometres wide, up there with Grimsvotn, Bardarbunga, or Katla. The top of its magma storage lies only 2 kilometres from the surface, the magma was accidentally drilled into during a geothermal exploration in 2009, really shallow compared to Reykjanes where the magma comes from near the mantle-crust boundary 15-20 kilometres down!
The Krafla Fires opened in 1975 with a massive magma intrusion underground, a megadyke, that rifted a length of 70 kilometres. This triggered a rapid influx of magma into the shallow magma chamber under the caldera to restore the enormous amount it lost during the first intrusion. The caldera inflated rapidly until the rift snapped again, a dyke propagated into the fissure swarm, and then the caldera deflated sharply as magma drained into the growing fractures. This inflation followed by sharp deflation pattern repeated over and over again. A total of 18 dyke intrusions happened from 1975 to 1984, initially they stayed underground or had small eruptions that were almost accidental, where the dykes grazed the surface here and there. They filled the rift progressively so that the intrusions became shorter, closer to the caldera, a few of the last ones did have significant eruptions when the filling was mostly done,
Laki wasn’t so different, a series of dyke intrusions that breached the surface producing magma surges over a period of 2 years, 1783-85 , what sets them apart is that Grimsvötn had enough magma available to fill the rift multiple times over, so every dyke vastly overflowed, and the repressurization must have been much faster because the fissure swarm snapped again while the previous dykes were still erupting.
Eruptions of Krafla followed the typical sequence of fissure eruptions, they open with a curtain of fire, a flood of pahoehoe, then effusion rates drop exponentially, later it can focus into one vent and go on at a lower intensity for some time. One of its largest eruptions was in November 1981, the dyke travelled in one hour from the magma chamber to the surface, within another two hours a curtain of fire 8 kilometres long was already shooting from rows fountains and sending forth floods of fluid lavas. During the initial peak hours of the strongest eruptions in 1984 and 1981 effusion rates of 800 m3/s were probably reached, if not surpassed, and this was similar to the rate at which the previous intrusive dykes expanded.
Krafla vs Reykjanes
I have been inspecting some of the old lava flows of the Reyjanes Peninsula in Google Earth, which I was talking about in my last article, it turns out there is some variety.
Hengill, Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja and Svartsengi erupt with great intensity, a curtain of fire feeds a flood of pahoehoe lavas of similar proportions to Krafla’s strongest, the eruption rate decays exponentially and may last for a total of a few weeks or so.
Brennisteinsfjöll is the exception, its eruptions are slow, long, complex, they don’t follow any general trend of decrease or increase in intensity. Fagradalsfjall, although shoulder to shoulder with volcanoes that are into lava floods, seems to have actually turned out the Brennisteinsfjöll way. In hindsight the rate at which the dyke grew, a mere 15-20 m3/s, a snail’s pace in the world of racing dykes, already pointed towards the eruption being a slow one. There is evidently a lot of magma in the mantle below Fagradalsfjall that is buoyant or pressurized and could readily erupt, 800 years of melting building up below the region, and if it could come out faster it would. If the dyke grew out so slowly it is probably because that is all that the conduit system that brings magma from the mantle into the dyke is capable of transporting. Presumably the space in the conduit somewhere down there is very little, so that the small opening and friction against the sides does not allow ascent to be any greater than that. As such, it is unlikely the eruption rates will exceed much more than 20 m3/s at any moment in the future.
The idea of a lava flood may sound attractive, however one should realize that this is something that happens very quickly, the peak eruption in a matter of a few hours, should it happen in the middle of a blizzard then perhaps the best part might go unseen entirely by everyone. Instead Fagradalsfjall seems to be putting a slow, long lasting, show that keeps changing.
I’ve got the impression from inspecting the lava flows of Brennisteinsfjöll that these probably formed in multistage eruptions where the active vent shifted location multiple times, that may have went on for multiple years and erupted more than 1 km3. Fagradallsfjall seems to be intent on shifting the eruption location, it has already opened three different fissures, this has surprised some scientists who, following the model where the dyke solidifies and output focusses into stable pipes, didn’t thought it should be possible for it to happen so far into an eruption. If we look into the recent past there are however a number of examples of eruptions that simply kept moving their vents around.
Surtsey
I think that the eruption of Surtsey might be a good analogue to the current eruption of Fagradalsfjall, as long as we ignore the difference that one was partly submarine whilst the other is subaerial. Fagradalsfjall is like a Surtsey out of the water. The eruption rates of Surtsey were low, around 5 m3/s when converted to lava, it lasted a total of 3.5 years, 1963-67.
Surtsey was a wandering eruption, from multiple vents along a 3 kilometre-long line. The eruption started from the vent Surtur I, which was joined 1.5 months later by Surtla that erupted for several days, Surtur I went on for about ~2.5 months. The activity moved to the vent Surtur II when Surtur I had waned, Surtur II erupted for about ~16 months. After Surtur II, a new vent, Syrtlingur, opened and erupted for ~5 months. After a brief break in activity, yet another vent, Jólnir, became active for ~10 months. Later effusion shifted to the first vent, Surtur I, for the 10 final months of the eruption.
The way Surtsey kept shifting the action around defies the typical assumption that after initial fissure opening, the first hours or days, then the eruption settles into a single or a few nearby vents and stays there, this is because the rest of the dyke solidifies so output concentrates into small pipes, which is how it happens almost every time. However, there are several examples of eruptions that do not obey this law, during the eruption of 1730-36 eruption of Timanfaya, in Lanzarote Island, the focus of activity kept shifting, the last outbreaks were as strong as the first ones, the activity being overall rather slow. During the 1991-93 eruption near Nyamuragira Volcano, a new vent would open every 2 weeks on average, a few or one of them being active at any given time, they did not open through a single line but sporadically over an oval area.
Why do new fissures keep opening up?
Fagradalsfjall has opened 6 fissures already, it does seem to be walking down the path of Surtsey, or Timanfaya, or Brennisteinsfjöll. I do think it is likely that new vents may keep opening until the eruption stops because it is how this kind of volcanic event seems to typically progress, a fissure eruption that does not have a proper curtain of fire, that does not have a exponential reduction in effusion rate.
How is it possible that new vents would open up even when the dyke should have solidified already? It doesn’t seem likely the magma would come for the initial intrusion which should be solid by now, and not able to flow any more. However there are pipes filled with hot new magma rising from depth into the vents. Geldingadalir, or Smeagol, or Bob, or was it the Twins? however it was called, this vent was fed with hot magma from depth, its magma pipe could have broken at some location down below and fed a lateral magma-filled fracture that opened fissures 2 and 3, a small dyke branch. This does seem like a plausible reason.
Some ground cracks did form between fissure 1 and the site of the incipient fissure 2. Ground cracks are possibly the best way of tracking the way magma moves underground, because at this point intrusions are small they may not generate detectable earthquakes or ground deformation, but they will probably open cracks. It is difficult however to monitor the opening of tiny cracks on the ground.
Often we may underestimate the complexity of a situation, for example we know that the dyke feeding the current eruption extends down to a depth of 5 kilometres, and yet we also know that the magma comes directly from a depth greater than 15 kilometres, with no intermediate magma chambers, so what happens in the 5-15 km depth range? Certainly the magma must have found a way through, not a very effective connection given that the intrusion and the eruption receive magma att such slow rates, however the exact way it happened remains unclear. When did magma start to rise upward? In January 2020 there was an intrusion, a sill, below Mount Thorbjörn, this is quite close to Fagradalsfjall, was magma already rising from the mantle then? Perhaps the intrusion was already growing long before it is assumed and it continues to grow now, as shown by the new fissures that opened up recently, and will probably keep doing so. How does the intrusion look like? a system of interconnected sills, dykes, with molten pipes transporting magma towards the vents and growing dyke branches? I guess this is up to our imagination.
Conclusions
The eruption in Fagradalsfjall is the subaerial equivalent of a Surtsey-like eruption, it seems also similar to the historical eruptions of the Brennisteinsfjöll Fissure Swarm, which happened around the 11th century, they were of significant volume and long-lasting.
New fissures will probably open along the dyke axis that runs from the eruption site to Keilir, at some point, days, weeks, or months from now. A decrease in surface volcanic activity may indicate that magma is moving into fractures towards a new eruption location, same is true for the formation of ground cracks. Old vents can be abandoned if the flow is redirected towards a new fissure. The eruption will probably end up lasting multiple months or years because the transport of magma from source to surface is slow.
This eruption is turning out to be really interesting, can’t wait to see what volcanic surprises await us!
Uhm… Can a dragon fix my link to the second image?
Done !
The way the weather has been I can’t see them getting much out of those solar panels. That may be why both webcams were down at the same time…flat batteries.
Techs are onsite working on the cams
The current view
Should have refreshed the page before posting, seeing as Westfjordian just posted the same 😛
Well great minds think the same, right? 😉
At least you didn’t mess up the link to the second picture
Of topic: i most certainly have not spent all over an hour looking into Faroese phonology trying to figure out how the pronunciation of your name differs from the Icelandic one 😏😅
Did a short recording of how I say the name, it’s def not the same as in Icelandic https://voca.ro/1omYGaI03bC6
Ooh, thanks!
Yup that sounds quite a bit different, that k-sound especially
When “k” and “i” are together “ki” then it becomes that “che” sound
Some similarities to Norwegian.
Is that a small vent next to Suðri or just lava?
Enlarging the lower photo (thanks, by the way) and looking at the cones on the left….the landscape behind looks eerie/sinister – the clouds/daylight combination is wild!
From mbl.is via giggle trnaslate and personal edits
https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2021/04/16/hraun_flaedir_ur_geldingadolum/
https://twitter.com/Icevolcanx/status/1383071987879321602
I thought it must be close, based on the image posted yesterday of it swallowing up Path A.
A panorama from inside the Grímsvötn caldera, they’ve been doing some fieldwork there these last few days atm https://twitter.com/krjonsdottir
gorgeous photograph
Current view of the escaped lava
Like!
Like…wow! 🙂
And some equipment at the hill, lower right corner. MBL?
It might get surrounded. Perhaps it should be moved to another location so that it may be serviced?
It amazes me how Close To The saddle’s Edge the Fissure1 twins are.
That levee at the back of the hot tub really did a great job of keeping the lava going the opposite way, filling the rest of the valley.
I like the silvery film on the lava lake/channel, with chunks of darker disrupted skin going with the flow towards the brink, and how the red glows through the stressed skin as it tips over the edge at the steepest part. Lovely to see the effects of the original topography making itself evident on top of the soon-to-be new land surface.
I wish that the photographer had taken a similar photo of the southwestern point just over the ridge at centre top. Also, see the little break/dip opposite the end of the lava at the top? I think that’s the middle of the 3 pathways that I was discussing a few days ago. It is just about the same height as the SW col.
I just wish and hope that the archaeologists/biologists have taken soil and palynological samples from the boggy bits, so much climate and environmental info is stored in peatbogs/acid podsols. It’s a bit difficult to work on them after they’ve been buried and baked…
The Geldingadalir cam is back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-RhgB1INII
Back for 5 minutes.. then the weather comes in.. hope this will be better tonight, I need my glowing and flowing lava!
Very black and eerie
Thanks for the heads up. Remarkably different landscape than one week ago.
Cone collapse at 17:08
Now, as the east exit of the Galdinga valley is taken, there is a chance that, if the vents keep busy, the lava could even break the next barrier to the south and go down to Natthagi? The first step seems to go down onto a plain. Then there is another small(?) ridge to overflow… maybe difficult as long as the drain into Meradalir works properly.
Northeast or south seems to be a 50/50 draw. We’ll have to see which way it goes.
Lowest exit to Meradalir is 197m and to Natthagi 202m. Probaly wont flow to Natthagi for a long time.
Lava streams have a tendency to dam themselves up fairly often,especially if the flow temporarily slows down for whatever reason
If I was a civil engineer, I’d be planning the lava bridge for when the lava gets down close to the ocean and the road can be rebuilt over the top.
I think you cannot rely totally on just the topography/heights. There’s a lot more subtle factors at play. If a levee is formed in a similar fashion to the hot tub for Gollum/Northy,It may cause a spread in the opposite direction. I’ve been thinking about the formation of those levees, so similar to the natural floodplain of a sediment-laden river. Fine particles get swept over and away downslope, while the larger sand/gravel grains are left behind if the current isn’t strong, near or on top of the riverbank, building up the levee and sometimes the cheannel as well.
I also think the lava surface can behave like ice on a lake. Under certain wind conditions, ice gets pushed up over itself into pressure ridges, piling up and not stopping when it reaches the shore. This also happens in the Arctic Ocean icepack (think of those horrid great pressure ridges that explorers had to haul their sleds over as they tried to get to the pole). There are some spectacular videos of ice invading gardens and properties near the Great Lakes.
What with this and the sloshing over the top, and small breakouts leaking over the edge and ‘welding’ the levee in place, small changes in wind direction, speed of crust formation, even the speed and volume of effusion could all be major factors in the way this eruption takes to lower ground.
I’d love for someone to work out a study to try to untangle all these. Shame this bear of little bain is too darn old to go galumphing around.
The white blob (marked by a rectangle) is equipment?
https://imgur.com/tAlpoNh
I think that is the flo cam, definitivly eqip.
This lava is dawdling all over the place, it will get there in the end.
Just watch, it has found an exit, I bet you it uses the exit for a while, then dawdles about a bit more and goes off in a tangent somewhere where we are not expecting it LOL
Well life would be boring if it were predictable and straight forward…
Some people have wondered about the equiptment visible on the hill. As far as I can tell/know about such things/guess (zoomed in on the image posted above)
1: Wind measurment
2: MBL cam
3. Weather/rain/gas measurment station thingy
Just out of frame to the right, there’s another station, which is qlearly a mobile-phonemast (it was zommed in on the hill a few days ago where one could see the things reasonably clearly)
Yesterday (I think it was), there were helicopters landing to the left of the MBL camera rig. At least there’s access for the gear there if things go south for any of it.
Wonder how easy the set up for those camera rigs are – if one had access to helicopters with winches, they could be set down and picked up if necessary (lava issues or repositioning). Costly, though.
While I’m on a wishing expedition, I wonder if the UK MoD would happen to have a couple ‘spare’ drones kicking around; send up a team and keep 24/7 coverage. Serve both as training for the RAF crews, scientific research needs, and just general gawking! 🙂
Wish mode off.
I would say it’s in the wrong place for the MBL camera, but it would be an ideal place for a weather monitoring station, particularly for gas, as it would be a bit lower and catch lingering gas.
The camera was turned slightly to the left a few days ago for a short moment, you could clearly see the windmeasuring thingy right next to it. Also if you compare it with the RUV cam on the image further up this page the setup looks quite similar.
From the fan page map:
kuvaus
Looking northwest towards “Sif”, “Flo” and others. Camera about 240 meters above sea level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1I-0PUhFmU
or (at the bottom of the page)
https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2021/04/07/obrynnisholmi_gaeti_myndast_i_dag/
Across from the Geldingadalir RUV camera is where the MBL camera was originally, on the hill in front of Stori Hrutur. On the view, you can see a slope to the left of the picture, which wouldn’t fit for the equipment shown.
They show well in the first few seconds of this video:
https://youtu.be/Ank1s4rAQg0
Look at the pic in the article.
Looks like smoke coming out of the ground to the left. Also seems to be a small graben.
https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/04/16/hraun-tekid-ad-renna-ur-geldingadolum-i-austur
According to the map (above) there should be a swell to the left. I think it’s unlikely to find smoke there because this wouldn’t be in line with the other vents.
Perhaps it’s just a raindrop on the camera. It isn’t in line with the dike but apparently this might be where a transform fault?(sniðgengi in Icelandic) is located.
It’s definitely mist, cloud or smoke. Couldn’t say which without seeing earlier / later shots.
The surface will show traces of periglacial small-scale features, which will change with the angle and length of slope. Polygonal ground, stripes, darker patches from the breakdown of lava into clayey materials. In some areas fine grains will be washed away and deposited elsewhere leaving larger stony pavements left. You could see many of these features in Geldingadalir begore the lava buried them. Every clip of the slabby lavacrawling forward shows different patterned grounds, if you can drag your gaze away from the sizzling, hissing, pinging glassy mesmerising mess!
Nice little mini lavafall on RUV camera 1. (from about 20:00)
This follows on from an outbreak from the cone at 19:37. The lava reaches the ledge at 20:05.
I came here to exclaim excitedly about the lavafall! Go to 20:04 for full anticipation/ satisfaction
Now this is the sort of smaller scale feature that I really like to track, as well as the major trends. Excellent catch.
Been watching-Is vent four still working,I fail to see smoke ,let alone splatter?
It’s been pretty quiet for a while now.
Is it one of the higher vents? They seem to tail off first, before another fissure opens up. It’s hard to pump all that lava up high if there’s a lower escape route handy.
A 3.6 and everything stops?
https://imgur.com/NVODkBr
Friday 16.04.2021 18:13:17 66.160 -16.560 8.8 km 3.6 50.5 16.5 km SSW of Kópasker
Source: https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes#view=map
As we are slowly learning, when the quakes go quiet, the lava gets quickly to work. I suspect sooner or later (probably sooner) new fissures will pop open on the north side of the fissure line.
I think northern end is still erupting happily straight into a tube system.
Two things: first, this is in the opposite side of the country and would have no effect on the eruption whatsoever. Second, the “quality” is 50.5, which is almost certainly a false detection. The system knows this and won’t even bother with plotting it as a green star.
In general, if you see an interesting looking quake in the list, look at the quality. If it’s below 90, don’t trust it. If it’s 99, then it has been manually verified by IMO.
I’m focussing on the Reykjanes Ridge looking at earthquakes. Saves getting distracted…
It seems there is smoke from the ground in the middle of the image from the mbl cam
Now a group of people is there investigating !
i’m back………. Grandchild fixed the computer!!!
so only 2 people are glad i’m back…. too bad, i’m glad enough for all of You! i missed the site SOOO much. i tried to hold it together… not sob too loudly into my pillow…. snif.. snif… i’ll try to be good so the next time i crash the computer, You guys will notice that i’m gone. 😉 ((might need an intervention. i realized how much i depend on the site……… it’s really sad guys….. ))
Even though I’ve not posted until recently, VC has been one of my must read sites since El Hierro. Along with Centaurs Dreams, various rail industry sites and diverse news sources not owned by Rupert. But VC is the first refresh of the day and the last of the evening.
Oh, Motsfo. I’ve given you a like. Glad your computer is fixed!
I knew you were offline, you have been missed, Best!
I’m just attempting to catch up on some chat, it’s one in the morning and I should be pushing out the Zeds, literally 😀
Col, that’s when I discoverd the VC. I learned so much about underwater eruptions through monitoring El Hierro!
Always missing your comments when you are away from this site!
O dear. we have to start behaving again! But we very happy to have you here with us again – behaving is a small price to pay! We will restart the eruption immediately. You would not believe what Iceland did while you weren’t watching!
(nothing)
La Soufriere update from about 3 hours ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyua1zw4kOI
they are still getting pyroclastic flows and some pretty big debris.
Just read that it erupted in 1902 which rang a bell. First Mount Pele in Martinique erupted (with a high death toll), then in May 1902 Mount Pele again and Soufriere, so two in a row. They seem lined up on an island arc. Great site here. Phantastic readers and observations.
1902 also had Santa Maria in Guatemala, VEI6.
Is this not on the opposite side of the same plate?
>>test to see if new commenting system works with old registration
Can’t comment from my computer anymore. It keeps saying “invalid security token”. I didn’t change anything from yesterday do you must have something changed at your end. I normally comment as “Twisted One”. Please fix this ASAP.
This has been passed on to the IT magicians. At some point it should time out and ask you to log in again (1-2 days). Using another browser may help bypass the token. This is what I had to do when hitting this error on some other systems (not VC). The best option would be to find and delete the token but I have no idea where that is stored.
Can someone post the current weblinks for the cameras? The old ones seem to have deceased.
Geldingadalir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-RhgB1INII&ab_channel=R%C3%9AV
MBL https://k100streymi.mbl.is/p2p/webcam1
The one from Meradalir is dead at the time of writing and will most likely be replaced/relocated in the near future.
Thank you Bjarki. 🙂
Was wondering what kind of fieldwork they were doing on Grimsvötn, and having never heard of a “DAS fiber-optic cable” I decided to look a bit around, and found this
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85621-8 “Source location of volcanic earthquakes and subsurface characterization using fiber-optic cable and distributed acoustic sensing system”
“Abstract
We present one of the first studies on source location determination for volcanic earthquakes and characterization of volcanic subsurfaces using data from a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system. Using the arrival time difference estimated from well-correlated waveforms and a dense spatial distribution of seismic amplitudes recorded along the fiber-optic cable, we determine the hypocenters of volcanic earthquakes recorded at Azuma volcano, Japan. The sources are located at a shallow depth beneath active volcanic areas with a range of approximately 1 km. Spatial distribution of the site amplification factors determined from coda waves of regional tectonic earthquakes are well correlated with old lava flow distributions and volcano topography. Since DAS observation can be performed remotely and buried fiber-optic cables are not damaged by volcanic ash or bombs during eruptions, this new observation system is suitable for monitoring of volcanoes without risk of system damage and for evaluating volcanic structures.”
The entire thing is quite an interesting read
What is the latest on Grimsvotn? and Katla for that matter… I saw something suggesting relating to Seismic activity around Katla…
Grimsvötn is expected to blow sometime in the next year or so.
Katla is still some time away, there’s some activity there, but as far as I can tell, nothing to worry about quite yet.
Thanx for figuring that out for us. I was about to start 😉
MBL cam is down and only 1 RUV cam.
Here is a screenshot from the wonderful map at
http://jardfraedikort.is/ddd/geldingadalir_3D/
As we mentioned before, there is a sink towards Natthagi (grey color) with a small ridge closing to the south. If the lava misses the obvious drain to Meradalir and turns south after exiting Geldingadalir, there might be a chance to see it running down to Natthagi in a few days/weeks.
Interesting. Red lines on that to the north of current eruption: observed surface cracks representing potential eruption sites?
I don’t think so. Not an expert, but I guess these are known faults.
Two timelapses from yesterday afternoon to this morning.
From the mbl.is webcam: April 16 16h45 to 24h00
https://youtu.be/Swb1md7wcAk
From the ruv webcam: April 16, 17h05 to April 17, 08h15
https://youtu.be/59AZT7JSpMc
Both start with a short fragment from April 14 to compare.
Wow. Thank you.
Great, thanks. Good way to catch up on what happened!
The cones seem to be emitting a lot of smoke, particular the southmost one, I am wondering what this portends?
We might have a new vent, or a satellite vent? Directly south of the latest formed cone (most left on Ruv Geldingadalir) I can see some spattering. It’s a bit too much for a lavafield blowout, and it seems to react to it’s bigger brother.
Another twin forming?
There’s been occasional spattering in that location over the last few days, but it does seem to be more consistent now. If it keeps going fast enough to keep punching through the perched pond, it could start building a twin cone.
Been watching that for a while, definitely a vent but not sure if it is new. Worth watching.
I’ve been expecting it today, seems that tremor dropped now so new vents are likely to appear.
Another interesting thing is that the current breakout and lava falls from vent 3 is about to cover the last bit of pre-eruption surface in that hill, just to the left of the bottom of the right-hand lava falls, as seen from the RUV camera.
The old mbl.is cam has had a Viking funeral.
Must be buried deep now.
Quite a nugget for future archeologists, that one…
Or more likely, future geologists.
I checked back and smoking has increased and lava levels have noticeably dropped in the middle cones so something is being set up definitely. New fissures to open up in north? Or south? (Of this current fissures length)
I Guess it’s going to be just south of Fissure 2, since that’s the only largish place left on the existing fissure field that hasn’t a vent yet.
There’s smoke coming from the South of the original cones, now.
Something may be happening in that area.
The camera has zoomed out, and there is nothing to see to the South of the original cones. Most likely the smoke was the result of degassing from the flow field.
Tremor seems to have dropped significally very quickly. Watchout for new vent.
As per a person who was on site this morning, at 7am, lava was about 35 meters from flowing downhill into Meradalir.
The mbl cam is online. With a very special view.
The camera is down. Please somebody try cheer him up!
Yes, lots of panning across and around the field of view. I didn’t realise just how much distortion of the landscape there is with this fish eye type lens; hopeless for landscape analysis! Just look what it does to the horizontal lava flows and pools. No wonder I feel sea-sick!
here is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1I-0PUhFmU
Almost looks like what an “oh no” moment would be from a Mars lander photo….
🙂
It’s so nice to see the mbl cam zoomed in and de-fisheyed
Super-zoom activated, looking at a side-doorway into fissure 6(?) with occaisonal spatter emerging sideways.A small double step-fall of lava in front, flowing into the area that was Gollum’s hot tub.
It has been reported that the eastern gap is breached, but I’ve not seen anything to show this. Does anyone know?
Has any lava flowed behind the first fissure to the southeast, along the lines of the first flow out of the proto-Smeagol? Is the lava heading out of the next southeast gap, or is it all skirting the west of the valley and heading for the southwest exit?
You mean like this?
Bjarki, posted this yesterday
Snap!
There’s also this one, fairly sure it is from yesterday, like the other one
Thanks! That’s a view towards the south. Seems that Natthagi is even harder to reach than I thought.
New vent has opened
Location a little uncertain as of now, but close to the other ones.
It’s confirmed that a new vent has formed inbetween the existing vents, no picture and the description is a bit vague, but I believe it is this one https://www.visir.is/g/20212098296d/ny-sprunga-opnadist-a-gosstodvunum
I think I’ve been seeing that one every now and then for a few days 🤔
Has conduit get cut off to first vent.? The lover still pumping out. Or have it change outflow. Think that why make smoke now. Or..!?
A close-up’ish picture of some of the equipment thingies on the hill, what I thought furter up this page was a weather stationg thingy, is actually a windturbine set up to power the webcam and other instruments
there you have it. Wind works when solar does not (and the other way around). It is so complementary (except for nights…)..
Good view of the channels around Northy there… And how narrow the lava field is at that pinch point.
The new vent
They say it’s new..but it can clearly be seen in this timelapse.
https://youtu.be/q4ABmQHdYAM
Also, from the before and after pictures on teh RUV newslblog, you can see a cone in the before picture.
Can You imagine: ancient man ‘stealing’ fire from the underground gods only to have it turn to rock What myths or legends they must have devised to explain the puzzling phenomenon. We are still mesmerized by it.
But you may miss out a moments when new vents are opening.
Kudos to Randall. He called it after the change in seismic activity (although it was not north of the fissure line).
Some deep quakes in Vatnajökull, some km away from Bárðarbunga today
After a quick check of the posts….
Have I missed something, has Southy (the original Twins) collapsed upon itself? Much smoke, very little to no lava or fountaining.
Thanks…and sorry!
I think they are mostly buried below the lavalake. Also the south-cone was creating a narrow top, just like vent #3 before it went all supernova (before the other fissures opened #3 was also narrow and mostly smoking.. It reminded me of a chimney). I think it is still going strong, just out of view, with only the gasses coming out of the top now.
But I am not sure, missed a lot due to work, bad weather and non-working webcams .. so maybe something else is going on?
Only a true Canadian can do both thanks and sorry in the same sentence like that. 🙂
Now you mention it, our resident Canadian at work says things like that.
https://twitter.com/Icevolcanx/status/1383476552168468486
the south crater of the oldest fissure 1 in Gelingadalir looks like it is retiring, no lava activity is seen most of the day and it is now bellowing out smoke and gases for hours, as shown in video.. we enter a next stage ?
https://twitter.com/Tetraheedra/status/1382747785624236036
Getting the most recent three #Geldingadalir lava samples dissolved for trace elements! The recent erupted lavas may show some interesting chemical variations that we need to verify. Stay tuned! #cleanlab #geochemistry
Some great footage of the escaped lava in this interview from today https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/04/17/hraunid-gaeti-runnid-nidur-i-meradali-a-morgun-eda-hinn
Oh my word, that is an awesome video! Lots of stuff to look at there, I definitely saw a pond? And even though it isn’t as steep as the slope into Natthagli (sp), that is going to be spectacular to see lava galloping down. Hope it’s in daylight.
Test comment to try out the changes to the login.
Second test comment.
Seems like my mojo is back again.
Time to celebrate with a glas of sauterne and cake.
Extra test just to be on the safe side.
Test a ma bob…
One Mah Boob coming up…
Sneaky…
My mojo is back, I did not get kicked out even after testing our old party trick.
I have not been able to do that for a year.
No, this is not a spam that leaked through. It’s a “peek-a-boo” retaliation. 😀
{We’ve got enough of them in the pending shit-can que as it is.}
If the effects last more than 4 hours, contact Vivid Video for contract negotiations… and possibly, see a doctor.
Seriously though, Viagra and similar meds fiddle around with the nitrate levels in your body. Don’t be complacent about unexpected effects. These could adversely affect your health.
Trouble has returned! Run for the hills everyone! Lol!
Really, welcome back Carl!
Earwormed. Thanks a bunch. 😀
Huzzah!
Carl.
Kissed any other volcanoes you’re not telling us about?
Hmm
Nothing new really. Still forms to be filled. Blogs ….. 😬
Greip busy.
apologies, the dungeon monster is gonna be active for the moment.
GL Edit: I took a stroll through there and kicked everything that looked legit out into the light of day.
present