Activity: "More or Less the Same"
Posted by JAC on 3/24/2010, 7:33 am
Up close video - scientists taking samples:

http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=volcanism.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhttp.ruv.straumar.is%2Fstatic.ruv.is%2Fvefur%2F23032010_gosmyndir.wmv























The latest observations from Iceland on the Eyjafjallajökull fissure eruption have been limited by poor weather and low visibility, but overall the activity, located at Fimmvörduháls between Eyjafjallajökull and Myrdalsjökull, does not appear to be changing significantly in character.

Evacuated residents of nearby farms have been given the all-clear to return home, and the authorities are apparently doing what they can to open the area up for tourists who wish to view the eruption from a safe distance, although anyone entering the closed danger areas of Thórsmörk, Fimmvörduháls and Eyjafjallajökull 'does so at their own risk'.

Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson of the Institute of Earth Science at the University of Iceland reported yesterday that the eruptive activity remained 'more or less the same', while Vídir Reynisson of the Icelandic civil protection authority is quoted as saying that 'the eruption is not losing force'.

However, this story from Icelandic state broadcaster RÚV appears to say - if Google's online translator has it right - that the eruption is slowly but steadily increasing (?).

It also indicates that there have been further phreatic explosions overnight.

Images at RÚV and other news sites show very free-flowing lava fountains, and a bank of black scoria accumulating behind the fissure.






It seems that scientists are planning a field trip to the eruption site today: it will be interesting to know more about the chemical composition of the lavas currently being erupted.

Identifying the source for the current activity may help establish whether or not Katla's magmatic system is involved in any way.

A collection of maps and photographs of the eruption has been published as a PDF by the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland:

http://www2.norvol.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/swdocument/1015729/Results+from+observations+flights+22.+mars.pdf

52
In this thread:
Eruption started at Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland - JAC, 3/21/2010, 8:09 am
< Return to the front page of the: message board | monthly archive this page is in
Post A Reply
This thread has been archived and can no longer receive replies.