Iceland lowers volcano warning as no sign of eruption

[Buster's Uncle]

Subglacial volcanic eruption begins in Iceland
Associated Press
By JENNA GOTTLIEB and JILL LAWLESS  44 minutes ago



Map locates Bardarbunga.; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76 mm;



REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland raised its aviation alert to red Saturday as a subglacial eruption began at the restless Bardarbunga volcano, which has been rattled by thousands of earthquakes in the past week, the country's Meteorological Office said.

Seismic data indicated that lava from the volcano was melting ice beneath the Vatnajokull glacier, Iceland's largest, Met Office vulcanologist Melissa Pfeffer said.

She said it was not clear when, or if, the eruption would melt through the ice — which is between 100 to 400 meters (330 to 1,300 feet) thick — and send steam and ash into the air.

The eruption led Iceland to raise its aviation alert level to red, indicating an eruption that could cause "significant emission of ash into the atmosphere." Red is the highest alert warning on a five-point scale.

Aviation authorities declared a no-fly zone around the volcano but did not shut Icelandic airspace.

Pfeffer said scientists were flying over the glacier Saturday to look for changes on its surface. Scientists were also monitoring a hydrological station downstream from the volcano for flooding — a common result of volcanic eruptions in Iceland.

Authorities evacuated several hundred people earlier this week from the highlands north of the Vatnajokull glacier as a precaution. The remote area, 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Reykjavik, is uninhabited but popular with hikers.

Iceland sits on a volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge and eruptions occur frequently, triggered when the Earth's plates move and when magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface.

A 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano produced an ash cloud that caused a week of international aviation chaos, with more than 100,000 flights cancelled. Aviation regulators since have reformed policies about flying through ash, so a new eruption would be unlikely to cause that much disruption.

Pfeffer said the amount of ash produced would depend on the thickness of the ice.

"The thicker the ice, the more water there is, the more explosive it will be and the more ash-rich the eruption will be," she said.

___

Online:

Icelandic Meteorological Office: http://en.vedur.is/


http://news.yahoo.com/quakes-surge-around-iceland-volcano-no-eruption-134128863.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Subglacial Eruption Begins at Iceland's Bardarbunga Volcano
LiveScience.com
By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer  13 minutes ago



The remote Barðarbunga volcano viewed from Askja volcano in southeast Iceland.



One week after an earthquake swarm first warned of magma on the rise, a volcanic eruption has started near Iceland's Barðarbunga volcano, the Icelandic Met Office announced today (Aug. 23).

The small-scale eruption is taking place northeast of Barðarbunga, underneath the Dyngjujökull glacier. Scientists estimate 492 to 1,312 feet of ice (150 to 400 meters) covers the emerging lava, the Met Office said in a statement. Even though no one can see the eruption, seismic signals indicate that ice is flashing into steam. This suggests lava has broken through to the surface, beneath the glacier.

The surface of Dyngjujökull glacier looked undisturbed during a survey flight today by the Iceland Coast Guard. There was no visible ash or melting ice, or cracks or sinkholes from the subglacial melting, the Met Office said. Radar and webcams also show no changes at Dyngjujökull soon after the eruption started at 2:10 p.m. local time (10:10 a.m. ET).

All of Iceland's airports remain open, though the airspace over the eruption site is closed. Barðarbunga is now on red alert, the highest on the country's five-grade aviation alert scale.

The eruption is being closely monitored for ash. At present time, officials do not expect a repeat of 2010, when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano grounded all flights in Europe. Aviation rules were changed after the shutdown. For example, in 2011, Iceland's Grímsvötn volcano blasted through ice in southeast Iceland (not far from Barðarbunga) and blew ash 12 miles (20 km) high, yet only 1 percent of Europe's flights were cancelled.

A more immediate threat is the glacial meltwater. Earlier this week, officials closed roads and evacuated tourists north of Barðarbunga. While the remote area is sparsely settled, the melting glacier could flood popular tourist sites and Iceland's main road.

Icelandic officials are monitoring the volcano with a dense network of earthquake sensors, radar and GPS stations. They're also watching water levels in the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, the outlet for glacial meltwater. There are also three webcams. You can watch them here and here.

The equipment was set out after an intense earthquake swarm began Aug. 16, signaling magma rising underground. Since the swarm started, thousands of earthquakes rattled the volcano each day, with the center of earthquake activity slowly moving northeast through the week. The pattern suggests the magma was forming a long, thin sheet called a dyke.

This article will be updated if significant additional information becomes available.


http://news.yahoo.com/subglacial-eruption-begins-icelands-bardarbunga-volcano-181534184.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Iceland raises volcano warning level to highest red after small eruption
Reuters
2 hours ago


REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - A small volcanic eruption has occurred under Iceland's Dyngjujokull glacier, prompting authorities to raise the warning code for aviation to red, the highest level, Iceland's meteorological office said on Saturday.

The region of the Bardarbunga volcano, in the centre of the North Atlantic island nation, has already been evacuated due to days of heightened seismic activity there.

"It is believed that a small subglacial lava-eruption has begun under the Dyngjujokull glacier," the Icelandic Met Office said. "The aviation color code for the Bardarbunga volcano has been changed from orange to red."

The red alert is the highest warning on the country's five-point scale and indicates an eruption is imminent or underway with a significant emission of ash likely. The colour codes are intended to inform the aviation sector about a volcano's status.

"There has been in­ten­se eart­hqua­ke acti­vity at the volcano. We cannot exclude that this could be a big eruption," Met Office scientist Kristin Jonsdottir said.

Ash from the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010 shut down much of Europe's airspace for six days, affecting more than 10 million people and costing $1.7 billion.

Brussels-based aviation authority Eurocontrol said that as soon as the volcano had erupted, the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London would produce a regular forecast about the levels of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

Based on this forecast, civil aviation authorities may issue a notice but it was the responsibility of individual airlines whether they would operate and how they would adapt their flight schedules, Eurocontrol said.

There have been thousands of small earthquakes over the past week at Bardarbunga, Iceland's largest volcanic system, located under the ice cap of a glacier but in a different range to Eyjafjallajokull.

The Met Office said an Icelandic Coast Guard airplane was flying over the area with staff from the office and the Civil Protection agency. Data from the equipment on board the plane was expected later Saturday, it added.

"Data from radars and web-cameras is being received, showing no signs of changes at the surface," it said.

(Reporting by Robert Robertsson, Niklas Pollard and Robert-Jan Bartunek, Editing by Angus MacSwan)


http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-raises-volcano-warning-level-highest-red-small-161210252.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Iceland raises volcano alert to red
AFP
By Haukur Holm  2 hours ago



Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano continues spewing ash and steam early on May 2, 2010 near Hvolsvöllur (AFP Photo/Halldor Kolbeins)



Reykjavik (AFP) - Iceland raised its alert over the nation's largest volcanic system to red on Saturday, banning all air traffic in the area, after detecting a small sub-glacial eruption.

A major explosion at the Bardarbunga volcano could signal a replay of the global travel chaos triggered when another Icelandic peak blew four years ago, creating a massive ash cloud across Europe.

"There is an ongoing eruption beneath the glacial surface, probably a small eruption which has not been enough to melt the ice cap," Iceland Met Office official Theodor Hervasson told AFP.

Police said a number of tourists were being evacuated in an area located north of the Bardarbunga volcano, which lies in southeast Iceland.

The authorities said they had decided not to evacuate residents of nearby areas, but encouraged them to be alert and have their mobile phones switched on at all times.

Iceland had raised its aviation alert to orange on Monday after Bardarbunga kicked into seismic action with the biggest earthquake registered since 1996.

However police said on Saturday that there was no sign of a change at the surface of the erupting area and that the ice layer was between 150 and 400 metres (500 and 1,300 feet) thick.


- 'Eruption minor' -

"The eruption is considered a minor event at this point," the national police commission said in a statement.

"Because of pressure from the glacier cap it is uncertain whether the eruption will stay sub-glacial or not," the statement said.

There are fears that a major eruption would melt the glaciar but police said that for the moment there was no indication of a flooding risk.

The eruption of Eyjafjoell, a smaller volcano, in April 2010 caused travel mayhem, stranding more than eight million travellers in the biggest airspace shut down since World War II.

"There's nothing we can do if we get another big eruption like that of Eyjafjoell except to interrupt air traffic in the dangerous areas," Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration spokesman Fridthor Eydal was quoted as saying earlier this week.

"It's really the only thing we can do," he said.

Bardarbunga lies under the country's largest glacier Vatnajoekull. The area around it is uninhabited, with only trekking cabins and campsites used by tourists and hunters in the summer months.

It is Iceland's second-highest peak, rising to more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet), and caps the country's largest volcanic system.

On Monday, seismologists recorded an earthquake of 4.5 on the Richter scale in the area.

Scientists believe its explosion would be large enough to disrupt air traffic over northern Europe and the northern Atlantic, as well as causing major damage on the island nation from volcanic ash and glacial flooding.

In 2010, the Eyjafjoell volcano in the south of the island shot a massive plume of volcanic debris up to nine kilometres (six miles) into the sky, blowing ash across to mainland Europe.

And in 2011, Iceland's most active sub-glacial volcano Grimsvotn erupted, forcing Iceland to temporarily shut its airspace and sparking fears of a repeat of the Eyjafjoell flight chaos.

Iceland is home to more than 100 volcanic mountains, some of which are among the most active in the world.


http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-raises-volcano-alert-level-red-met-office-153326005.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Iceland Volcano Begins Erupting, Sparking Red Alert
The Atlantic Wire
By Allen McDuffee  1 hour ago



Iceland put the Coast Guard on standby and issued a red alert to the aviation industry Saturday after detecting a small subglacial eruption of lava under an ice cap at the Bardarbunga volcano — one of the country's largest.

Data from radar and web cameras show no visible signs of eruption at the surface level that would suggest ash will be shot into the atmosphere. However, Iceland's Meteorological Office is taking all precautions and the red alert level indicates an eruption could occur at any point. 

"The rate of earthquakes has increased such that they are happening so quickly that it is difficult for the seismologist to discern individual events," Iceland's Meteorological Office in Reykjavik said in a statement on its website. "The activity continues and an eruption can therefore not be ruled out."

Melissa Pfeffer, a vulcanologist with the Meteorological Office, told the Associated Press that seismic data shows lava from the volcano is melting ice beneath the Vatnajokull glacier, but that it's not still clear whether the eruption will melt the ice and send steam and ash into the atmosphere.

Ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano resulted in canceled flights and millions of stranded travelers throughout Europe in 2010. However, changes in aviation regulations are likely to minimize the impact on air travel this time around. While the airspace in the immediate area of the volcano is restricted, all of Iceland's airports remain open.


http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-volcano-begins-erupting-sparking-red-alert-181600736.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Subglacial Eruption Begins at Iceland's Bardarbunga Volcano (Updated)
LiveScience.com
By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer  7 hours ago



The remote Barðarbunga volcano viewed from Askja volcano in southeast Iceland.



One week after an earthquake swarm first warned of magma on the rise, a volcanic eruption has started near Iceland's Barðarbunga volcano, the Icelandic Met Office announced today (Aug. 23).

The small-scale eruption is taking place northeast of Barðarbunga, underneath the Dyngjujökull glacier. Scientists estimate 492 to 1,312 feet of ice (150 to 400 meters) covers the emerging lava, the Met Office said in a statement. Even though no one can see the eruption, seismic signals indicate that ice is flashing into steam. This suggests lava has broken through to the surface, beneath the glacier.

Update at 9:30 p.m. ET: Volcano experts in Iceland are not convinced that an eruption is underway. Earthquakes continue, including a magnitude-5.3 this evening, but the tremors that signaled steam blasts from lava have decreased, the Met Office said. Nor is meltwater draining from the glacier. "Presently there are no signs of ongoing volcanic activity," the Met Office said in an update. "The aviation color code for the Barðarbunga volcano remains red as an imminent eruption can not be excluded."

The surface of Dyngjujökull glacier looked undisturbed during a survey flight by the Iceland Coast Guard soon after the eruption started at 2:10 p.m. local time (10:10 a.m. ET). There was no ash or melting ice at the surface. Radar and web cams also show no changes at Dyngjujökull.

All of Iceland's airports remain open, though the airspace over the eruption site is closed. The red alert is the highest on the country's five-grade aviation alert scale.

The eruption is being closely monitored for ash. At present time, officials do not expect a repeat of 2010, when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano grounded all flights in Europe. Aviation rules were changed after the shutdown. For example, in 2011, Iceland's Grímsvötn volcano blasted through ice in southeast Iceland (not far from Barðarbunga) and blew ash 12 miles (20 km) high, yet only 1 percent of Europe's flights were cancelled.

A more immediate threat is the glacial meltwater. Earlier this week, officials closed roads and evacuated tourists north of Barðarbunga. While the remote area is sparsely settled, the melting glacier could flood popular tourist sites and Iceland's main road.

Icelandic officials are monitoring the volcano with a dense network of earthquake sensors, radar and GPS stations. They're also watching water levels in the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, the outlet for glacial meltwater. There are also three webcams. You can watch them here and here.

The equipment was set out after an intense earthquake swarm began Aug. 16, signaling magma rising underground. Since the swarm started, thousands of earthquakes rattled the volcano each day, with the center of earthquake activity slowly moving northeast through the week. The pattern suggests the magma was forming a long, thin sheet called a dyke.

This article will be updated if significant additional information becomes available.


http://news.yahoo.com/subglacial-eruption-begins-icelands-bardarbunga-volcano-updated-181534812.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Iceland removes ban on air traffic over rumbling volcano
AFP
9 hours ago



Computer screens show seismic activity from the Bardarbunga volcanic eruption at the Icelandic met office in Reykjavik on August 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Halldor Kolbeins)


Reykjavik (AFP) - Iceland removed a ban on air traffic around the nation's largest volcanic system on Sunday after fears of an imminent eruption subsided.

The Icelandic Met Office said there had not been a small, subglacial eruption on Saturday, as previously announced, and lowered the alert over the Bardarbunga volcano from red to orange.

"Presently there are no signs of ongoing volcanic activity," the IMO said on its website.

A major explosion at the Bardarbunga volcano, located under a glacier, could signal a replay of the global travel chaos triggered when another Icelandic peak blew four years ago, creating a massive ash cloud across Europe.

The red alert level put in place on Saturday led to the closure of airspace in the affected area, although all airports in the country remained opened.

"All restrictions on aviation have been cancelled," Icelandic police said in a statement.

Seismic activity remains high in the area, with more than 700 tremors recorded during the night.

Early on Sunday, the strongest earthquakes of the current seismic cycle shook Bardarbunga.

They were listed on the Met Office's website with intensities of 5.3 and 5.1 on the Richter scale, the highest registered in the area since 1996.

Earlier this week, authorities evacuated tourists and hikers from the area around the volcano, which remained closed on Sunday afternoon, according to the police.

The eruption of Eyjafjoell, a smaller volcano, in April 2010 caused travel mayhem, stranding more than eight million people in the widest airspace shutdown since World War II.

Iceland's most active sub-glacial volcano Grimsvotn erupted in 2011, forcing the country to temporarily shut its airspace and sparking fears of a repeat of the Eyjafjoell flight chaos.

Iceland is home to more than 100 volcanic mountains, some of which are among the most active in the world.


http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-lowers-volcano-alert-orange-130605550.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Iceland lowers volcano warning as no sign of eruption
Reuters
By Robert Robertsson  10 hours ago



A warning sign blocks the road to Bardarbunga volcano, some 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) away, in the north-west region of the Vatnajokull glacier August 19, 2014. REUTERS/Sigtryggur Johannsson



REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland lowered its warning code for possible volcanic disruption to the aviation industry to orange from red on Sunday after further analysis of an apparent eruption under a glacier found there had been no eruption after all.

The risk level had been raised to red, the highest level on the country's five-point alert system, on Saturday after authorities detected signs of a small eruption beneath a glacier near the Bardarbunga volcano in central Iceland.

Ash from the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano shut down much of Europe's airspace for six days, affecting more than 10 million people and costing $1.7 billion.

"Observations show that a sub-glacial eruption did not occur yesterday. The intense low-frequency seismic signal observed yesterday has therefore other explanations," the Icelandic Met Office said.

The office had therefore decided to move the aviation warning code from red to orange, it said, but since there was no sign the seismic activity was slowing down, an eruption could still not be excluded.

The national police commissioner said separately that all restrictions on aviation had been cancelled. Airspace of 140 by 100 nautical miles above the volcano had been closed to aircraft on Saturday.

However, restrictions on roads and evacuated areas in the region remained in effect, it said. Authorities were moving away from emergency footing though they remained on alert.

There have been thousands of small earthquakes over the past week at Bardarbunga, which is Iceland's largest volcanic system and located under the ice cap of a glacier. It is in a different range to Eyjafjallajokull, which erupted in 2010.

Red alert indicates an eruption is imminent or underway with a significant emission of ash likely.

The Met Office said on Sunday a magnitude 5.3 earthquake at 5 km (3 miles) depth had struck after midnight while another, with a magnitude of about 5, had occurred some five hours later.

"These are the strongest events measured since the onset of the seismic crisis at Bardarbunga and the strongest since 1996," the office said.


RED ALERT

The region of the Bardarbunga volcano in the centre of the North Atlantic island nation was evacuated due to days of heightened seismic activity.

The evacuated zone was extended somewhat on Saturday, but Icelandic airports remain open.

Brussels-based aviation authority Eurocontrol said that as soon as the volcano had erupted, the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London would produce a regular forecast about the levels of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

Based on this forecast, civil aviation authorities may issue a notice but it was the responsibility of individual airlines whether they would operate and how they would adapt their flight schedules, Eurocontrol said.

(Writing by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)


http://news.yahoo.com/quakes-strike-iceland-volcano-eruption-red-alert-aviation-114427598.html