No End in Sight
Posted by JAC on 5/4/2010, 10:53 am
Yesterday the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) issued a bulletin (PDF)

http://en.vedur.is/media/jar/Eyjafjallajokull_status_2010-05-03_IES_IMO.pdf

on the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull which reported that 'there are no indications that the eruption is about to end'.





The image above comes from the Vodafone órólfsfell webcam, captured at 10:49 GMT today and shows Eyjafjallajökull erupting a fairly vigorous steam-and-ash plume from its main vent.

Steam plumes can be seen rising from the gully where lava is interacting with meltwater as it descends the slope.

The main ash plume has been varying in height (the IMO bulletin and VAAC reports indicate up to around 5.5 km altitude) and density yesterday and today; on occasion the cameras have shown a very black plume indeed.

Tremor has reduced since the IMO issued its bulletin, but there have been more earthquakes under Eyjafjallajökull over the last 24 hours, some shallow (1.1-2.2 km) but some very deep:
between around 21:00 yesterday and 01:00 today there were four quakes of magnitudes between 1.4 and 1.8, at depths varying from 13.0 to 21.6 km.

There also appears to be a north-south alignment to recent earthquake activity.

The very deep earthquakes could represent magma moving at depth, or subsidence of magma chambers which have been emptied by the eruption;
the IMO bulletin reports deformation measurements which indicate continued subsidence at Eyjafjallajökull.

Time will tell what implications this has for the future development of the eruption.





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Katla Watch - JAC, 4/28/2010, 3:21 pm
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