Icelandic Seismic/Volcanic Hyperactivity

[Olo401]

Looks like it's getting pretty serious over there again, possibly on an equal or larger scale to the eruptions a few years ago that disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel.

British and Icelandic scientists say that 50 million cubic metres of molten rock has moved in a 24 hour period.
If it continues to head north, it could link up with the Askja system and trigger a large eruption.
....
Over the last 10 days, they have detected large numbers of earthquakes, which have been moving north over a distance of about 40km. They are caused as magma flows beneath the ground, cracking the rocks as it moves.
On Tuesday morning the Bardarbunga volcano was hit by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake, the largest since tremors began in the area last week.
About 350 million cubic metres of magma have moved in this period, which is about twice the amount of molten rock that was blasted into the air during Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010.

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28943708

Time-laspe video mapping subterranean quakes related to magma displacement
(the broken curve line at the top of the image is the edge of the Askja caldera):


Dailykos user Rei has been documenting recent events in Iceland in a series of diaries.

[Qalbert]

why is a volcano in the politics section

[Qalbert]

shut the fuck up, Olo

[Olo401]

I see the level of moderator discourse on this site continues to elevate..

It's here because the section has more than just politics and I thought it went here. If you feel it's in the wrong place I won't mind it being moved.

[Dimmauk]

Can we say this is due to Global warming? Then it can stay in the political forum lol

[archibaldcrane]

If the eruption is big enough, might cause some global cooling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter

[Cutriss]

Won't like, kinda wish this had happened while I was there

[Meresgi]

If the eruption is big enough, might cause some global cooling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter

I can hear Sean Hannity and Limbaugh hoping for this to disprove all dem scientists. See! Nothing is wrong!

[archibaldcrane]

A friend of mine is in Iceland right now. Hopefully it can chill for another few days until she leaves.

[Outlaw]

This is definitely cause for concern. That is a huge amount of magma to move in such a short time. I read over his blog and the frequency of earthquakes is what got my attention. That is commonly what happens before a great eruption.

Between 1950 and 1990, counting aftershocks as distinct events, Iceland received 26 quakes of magnitude 5.1 or greater, meaning one every 1,6 years. 11 of these were 5.3 or greater (one every 3.6 years), and only two of them were magnitude 5.7 or greater (one every 20 years).

I mention this because I want you to understand the significance of the fact that Bárðarbunga has caused, in a 50 hour period, two 5.1 quakes, two 5.3 quakes, and a 5.7:

It's also worth noting that in Iceland, earthquakes aren't generally felt long from the source, which is typical for volcanic quakes. So the fact that people in Akureyri and the Eastfjörds are feeling them is a testament to their power.

[Olo401]

Big update - the glacial cap over the B-bunga caldera has cracked and sunk, most likely indicating an eruption below it.

[notorious bum]

Son of a bitch.... I'm having NOVA and Nat. Geo super volcano episode flashbacks

[Cail]

Is this Icelandic volcano one of the supposed supers or just a regular?

[notorious bum]

This one is definitely not a super volcano, in fact, the hype around it is really blown out of proportion, according to self-proclaimed geologists on the reddit threads.

[ronin sparthos]

More importantly is learning to pronounce the names of these volcanoes.

[Abandon]

shut the fuck up, Olo

[Priran]

the B-bunga caldera has cracked and sunk

[Outlaw]

Too update a mile long fissure has opened up and there has been eruptions all along it for the last couple days. It's pretty amazing looking.

A new volcanic eruption in southeast Iceland on Sunday fountained lava nearly 200 feet into the air.

Lava is spewing from the same crack as a small eruption that occurred Friday. The fissure slices through the 200-year-old Holuhraun lava field, between Bardarbunga volcano and Askja volcano.

The "calm" eruption is 50 times more powerful than Friday's outburst, according to the Iceland Met Office. Lava was streaming from the fissure at 15.9 million gallons per minute at 7 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) on Sunday, three hours after the flare-up began. The basalt flow was almost 0.6 miles wide by 1.9 miles long by mid-morning local time. The crack feeding the lava flow has also expanded to the north and south, and is now almost 1 mile long. [Gallery: Beautiful Images of Bardarbunga's Volcanic Eruption]

The eruption can be seen on live webcams here and here.

Emergency officials briefly raised the aviation alert warning to red, but no commercial flights have been affected.

The volcanic activity kicked off Aug. 16, when thousands of small earthquakes underneath the Bardarbunga volcano signaled fresh magma (molten rock) was burrowing underground. After a few days, the tremors showed the magma push off toward the northeast, forming a long channel called a dike. This narrow magma intrusion is now more than 28 miles long.

On Aug. 29, the dike punched through to the surface in the Holuhraun lava field, an older lava flow that erupted in 1797. Lava briefly erupted just after midnight local time (8 p.m. ET) for three to four hours. A small amount of molten rock streamed from an old fissure some 2,000 feet long, jetting clouds of steam. The Holuhraun lava field sits at the toe of Dyngjujokull glacier, between Bardarbunga volcano and Askja volcano. Askja volcano is located 30 miles northeast of Bardarbunga. Fissures from earlier eruptions fractured the remote and rugged terrain. As the dike tunneled underground and neared the surface there, it shifted the ground, opening new cracks and widening older fractures, scientists with the University of Iceland reported.

New cracks in the glacier covering Bardarbunga volcano also hint at unrest beneath the ice.

Bardarbunga volcano is buried under an ice cap 1,310 to 1,970 feet thick. Three circular crevasses, described as ice cauldrons, were discovered in the ice cap during a reconnaissance flight Aug. 27, the Met Office said. Each pit is about 32 to 50 feet deep. The pits indicate either an eruption or geothermal heating that is melting ice deep below the glacier's surface, according to the Met Office.

Scientists can only detect a subglacial eruption at Bardarbunga by watching for melting and "listening" for the seismic signals of lava melting ice.

http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i...-fountains.jpg

http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i...0/rtr448jl.jpg

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-volc...-into-the-air/

Edit: here's the links of the live cam but it's not very good.

http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga

http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/bardarbunga-2/