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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2014, 08:38:40 pm

Title: Quake hits Iceland volcano, no sign of fresh eruption: Met office
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2014, 08:38:40 pm

Quake hits Iceland volcano, no sign of fresh eruption: Met office
Reuters
9 hours ago


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Picture shows magma along a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher


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Picture shows clouds over a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher


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Steam and smoke rise over a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher



STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A large earthquake hit Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano system early on Saturday, but there was no sign of a fresh eruption, the country's Meteorological Office said.

Authorities have been on alert since a surge of small quakes there this month triggered memories of the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed out ash and shut down much of Europe's airspace.

A magnitude 5.4 quake was recorded under Bardarbunga's main volcano at 0703 GMT, said Icelandic Met Office seismologist Martin Hensch.

It came a day after a small eruption in a fissure in a glacier about 40km (25 miles) from the main crater in Iceland's largest volcano system. [ID:nL5N0QZ07X]

The Met office initially raised its aviation warning to red, its highest level, on Friday, then reduced it to orange and removed all airspace restrictions after the eruption stopped.

Hensch said there were currently no signs of magma heading back to the surface, though it was impossible to predict how the situation would develop.

"There are so many parameters in this system," he said. "We cannot make a forecast for the next hours or the next few days. So we have to continue to monitor and react to events when they happen."

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Andrew Heavens)


http://news.yahoo.com/quake-hits-iceland-volcano-no-sign-fresh-eruption-094428732.html (http://news.yahoo.com/quake-hits-iceland-volcano-no-sign-fresh-eruption-094428732.html)

Title: Iceland says eruption over, lifts all airspace restrictions
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2014, 09:51:34 pm

Iceland says eruption over, lifts all airspace restrictions
Reuters
By Robert Robertsson and Simon Johnson  August 29, 2014 2:10 PM


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Picture shows magma along a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher



REYKJAVIK/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Iceland said a small volcanic eruption in the Bardarbunga volcano system that started in the early hours of Friday had stopped and it had lifted all airspace restrictions.

Earlier in the day the Icelandic Meteorological Office reduced its ash warning level for aviation to orange after concluding the eruption posed no threat to aircraft.

"A fissure eruption which started at midnight at Holuhraun lava north of Vatnajokull glacier, ended at around 0400 GMT (12 a.m. EDT)," the National Crisis Coordination Centre said in a statement. "The fissure has been estimated to be 600 meters long and is situated 5 km north of Dyngjujokull glacier in north-Vatnajokull glacier."

It said there continued to be seismic activity in the area.

Iceland's largest volcanic system, which cuts a 190-km (120-mile)-long and up to 25-km-(15-mile)-wide swathe across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the last two weeks and scientists have been on high alert in case of an eruption.


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JmRl1Q6MIERcX_Vy6LlmHw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMwMDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-08-29T181807Z_1_LYNXMPEA7S0VY_RTROPTP_2_ICELAND-VOLCANO-ALERT.JPG)
Picture shows clouds over a 1-km-long fissure in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga volcano system, August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Marco Nescher


Reykjavik's Met Office said that in the early hours of Friday, a fissure eruption began in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of the Bardarbunga system. There have been no signs of ash like that from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption that shut much of Europe's air space in 2010.

While the risk of an ash cloud is highest in case of a sub-glacial eruption, Icelandic authorities for a few hours on Friday raised the aviation warning level to red, the highest on a five-color scale and indicating that an eruption is imminent or under way, with a risk of spewing ash.

The eruption was at the tip of a magma dyke 40 km from the main Bardarbunga crater, Met Office seismologist Martin Hensch said earlier.

Nick Petford, a vulcanology expert at the University of Northampton in Britain, said fissure eruptions were often spectacular, but relatively low key and often die out in a couple of days. But there could be a sting in the tail, he said.

"Exactly the same thing happened in 2010 with the Eyjafjallajokull volcano," Petford said. "The main eruption was in April, but in March there was a fissure eruption which was a precursor to the much larger eruption."

The Eyjafjallajokull event was particularly disruptive because it pushed ash up to precisely the elevation used by transatlantic aircraft, while prevailing winds propelled the cloud into European air space. The ash was also particularly sticky due to its chemical composition.

Petford said that when the current eruption subsided, scientists would be looking for signs of more quakes deeper under the volcano, which would suggest more magma was welling up, and for any swelling of the volcano that could be measured using GPS.

"Those are pretty clear evidence that large amounts of magma are being stored within the volcano and that's a good indication it will explode."

(Reporting by Simon Johnson, Anna Ringstrom, Niklas Pollard and Alistair Scrutton, editing by Mark Heinrich)


http://news.yahoo.com/icelandic-volcano-alert-raised-red-eruption-no-volcanic-045358899.html (http://news.yahoo.com/icelandic-volcano-alert-raised-red-eruption-no-volcanic-045358899.html)

Title: Icelandic Volcano Briefly Spews Lava Up to the Surface
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2014, 09:57:01 pm

Icelandic Volcano Briefly Spews Lava Up to the Surface
The Atlantic Wire
By Arit John  August 28, 2014 11:07 PM


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The Icelandic Meteorological Office reports that a fissure eruption has occurred at the near the site of the Bárðarbunga volcano, meaning magma has cracked the surface. Earlier this week the volcano erupted under the glacier level, leading authorities to stop air travel over the area. Now the volcano is erupting for real at the Holuhraun Lava Field, though officials described the eruption as being small.

According to RÚV, lava started pouring out of a 100-meter fissure at around 8 p.m. EST, or midnight local time. The Meteorological Office raised the aviation warning level from orange to red, though no volcanic ash has been reported:

Quote

(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/500288048932737025/NRodTwb-_normal.jpeg) Fréttastofa RÚV   @RUVfrettir 
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BREAKING: Icelandic Met Office issues red alert to aviation. Fissure eruption, no volcanic ash detected. #Bardarbunga @BBC_HaveYourSay

9:56 PM - 28 Aug 2014

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For the curious, Icelandic site Mila has two live feeds of the eruption streaming, taken from about 15-to-20 miles away from the eruption. Currently the feeds are pitch black, and it appears that the eruption has died down.

While a lot of people are hoping for some spectacular images, airlines are anxiously hoping Bárðarbunga doesn't flare up more. In 2010 Eyjafjallajökull, another Icelandic volcano, erupted, sending giant clouds of volcanic ash into the air and grounding flights across the Atlantic Ocean for days. So far Bárðarbunga doesn't seem to be another travel nightmare.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/icelandic-volcano-briefly-spews-lava-up-to-the-surface/379355/ (http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/icelandic-volcano-briefly-spews-lava-up-to-the-surface/379355/)