Eyjafjallajökull Caldera Eruption

Its just low lying cloud with a high ash content completely blocking out the view and the thermal, its happened quite a bit lately

Ahhhh.... that would make sense. I wasn't sure - I was thinking if it was a camera malfunction it'd be one camera and not both. Thanks for responding so quickly to my question.

Awesome video link. A must see!

www.youtube.com...#

mclinking

Originally posted by mclinking
Awesome video link. A must see!

www.youtube.com...#

mclinking

That vid is, quite literally, AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing...

And to finally get some sound... fantastic!

Britain's two biggest airports were suffering major flight disruption today - and a string of others were closed - after the return of the Icelandic ash cloud caused chaos for thousands of passengers. A no-fly order saw Heathrow and Gatwick shut until 7am today, and both will only partially reopen during the next six hours, air traffic authority Nats said.

Flights are also grounded until lunchtime across Northern Ireland and much of Scotland and Wales, with warnings of widespread knock-on disruption later in the day both here and abroad.

There will be no arrivals at Gatwick until 1pm at the earliest, while Heathrow will see reduced take-offs and departures as well as extended delays and cancellations.

Some big regional airports like Manchester, Glasgow and Stansted are open, but passengers everywhere are being urged to check with their airlines before leaving for the airport.

Nats warned the ash cloud was "continuing to change shape" as it spread over southern England to Northern Ireland and as far north as the Shetland Isles.

Source


And it continues..

Sooooo, first we have a quake under Hekla... and just now one right over by Katla... things are getting interesting...

en.vedur.is...=map

Originally posted by MoorfNZ
Sooooo, first we have a quake under Hekla... and just now one right over by Katla... things are getting interesting...

en.vedur.is...=map

I saw the Helka one last night and thought it interesting to see if start to spread.. not expecting to see on under katla today.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend and if the trend continues..

I'm now starting to think with the phreatic Eruptions now more or less out of the way, the ejection of more chamber material from Eyjafjallajokull is introducing more inflammable materials into the system. This expansion is pushing up against Eyjafjallajokull's neighbours Hekla and Katla, which both are already overdue for a Eruption themselves individually anyhow.

This expansion could be the cause of the shallow, yet smaller magnitude quakes, rather than continual larger quakes which would be the signature of Magma trying to break through the system underneath the conduits. Depending on how much material is being injected into Eyjafjallajokull could determine its effects on the neighbouring Volcanoes in future months/years.

For you who don’t know much about Iceland. Here is a small glance into its volcanic history and gives you an idea what we are dealing with. As you see the Eyjafjallajökull eruption is like a small rowing boat compared to tankers like Katla, Bárðarbunga, Hekla, Öræfajökull, Laki and Eldgjá. This will give another perspective on Iceland.

PART 1.

ÖRÆFAJÖKULL 1362.

Öræfajökull – The largest and the most dangerous volcano in Iceland. Has very explosive eruptions. In 1362 AD the Öræfajökull super-erupted, as powerfully as Krakatoa (1883 AD). This could have had some impact on the global climate cooling of the Little Ice Age.

The eruption which lasted for 2 days set of horrific pyroclastic flows which totally destroyed the nearby countryside. Before the eruption the country side was Icelands most flourished area. After the eruption it was a bleak desert and has since then been called Öræfi (The Wasteland).

Recent evidence suggest the 1362 eruption was the biggest in Europe for the past 2000 years, bigger than the 79 AD Vesuvius episode which destroyed Pompeii. Because of Icelands isolation and low number of inhabitants the scale of the 1362 eruption is only just being discovered.

Reknown volcanogist Thor Thordarson says: ,,This eruption was two or three orders of magnitude larger than Laki and the largest eruption in Europe in the past 2000 years.”

ELDGJÁ AND LAKI.

Volcanoes erupt in one of two basic styles: lava outflows from fissures in the ground and ash explosions from vents on top of volcanic mountains. During the past eleven centuries, the world has seen two enormous fissure eruptions: the Eldgjá (Fire Chasm) eruption in 934 and the Laki, or Skaftareldar (Skaftar Fires), eruption in 1783, both in southern Iceland. As the photograph shows, their ancient lava flows appear intermingled and moss-covered today.
Such older eruptions have been investigated by using various research techniques. Scientists measure the visible lava and ash exposures in the field. Sulfuric acid fallout over polar areas can be detected in deeply drilled ice cores having clearly marked annual layers of ice. The anomalous cooling appears in stunted annual growth rings of north temperate trees and, much more importantly, in contemporary reports compiled by competent witnesses. For the oldest historic eruptions, however, these compilers may not be scientifically trained or even first-hand witnesses.
Using published historical documents, Richard Stothers at GISS has traced the climatic and demographic consequences of the great Eldgjá and Laki eruptions. In both eruptions, the cloud of aerosols from the eruption traversed northern Europe on the prevailing westerly winds, and dimmed and reddened the sun. This continued for months. King Henry of Saxony noted the ominous presence of the thick dry fog in 934, and Benjamin Franklin observed it scientifically in France in 1783. Both eruptions were followed by a very cold winter, poor harvests the next summer, severe famine, and a widespread disease epidemic. Conditions remained bad for 5 to 8 years after Eldgjá, but only for 2 to 3 years after Laki. The Eldgjá eruption, though slightly smaller than Laki, injected far more aerosols into the middle stratosphere, where they persisted for a longer time than did Laki's aerosols at lower layers of the atmosphere.
The climatic aftereffects of the largest historic eruptions are very important for verifying our knowledge of the aftereffects of the smaller, though better documented, modern eruptions. While the older data may be poorer in quality and quantity, the old climatic signals were bigger, and therefore more easily detectable, because the eruptions were larger. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 may have looked impressive to us, but, by historic standards, it was just a little puff. www.giss.nasa.gov...

LAKI 1783-1784.
For eight months during the years 1783-1784, lava erupted from dozens of vents along a 27-km-long (17-mile-long) fissure system in the highlands of southern Iceland. Basaltic lava flows—just like the flows we see here in Hawai`i—poured south out of the mountains onto the coastal plains, burying 599 square km ( 231 square miles) in the process. The total volume of lava erupted in eight months is estimated at 15.1 cubic km (3.6 cubic miles). In comparison, Kīlauea's ongoing east rift zone eruption, approaching the end of its 26th year of activity, has produced only about 3.4 cubic km (0.8 cubic miles) of lava.
In addition to these enormous lava flows, eruptive episodes from the Laki fissure started with explosive eruptions that blanketed more than 8,000 square km (3,089 square miles) with volcanic ash and cinders. And if you think the vog here can be bad, Laki pumped out 122 million tons of sulfur dioxide in eight months. Compare this to Kīlauea's 0.85 million tons from February to September, 2008—less than one percent of Laki's output over the same length of time. Half of the livestock in Iceland died after eating grass contaminated with fluorine from the gas plume, and 20 percent of Iceland's population starved during the famine that followed. The sulfur dioxide released led to crop failures throughout Europe and may have led to, or exacerbated, other famines in the northern hemisphere that occurred at about the same time (hvo.wr.usgs.gov...).

Did Laki disrupt the Asian monsoon cycle, prompting famine in Egypt and cause the Mississippi river to freeze at New Orleans?

Just over 200 years ago an Icelandic volcano erupted with catastrophic consequences for weather, agriculture and transport across the northern hemisphere – and helped trigger the French revolution.
The Laki volcanic fissure in southern Iceland erupted over an eight-month period from 8 June 1783 to February 1784, spewing lava and poisonous gases that devastated the island's agriculture, killing much of the livestock. It is estimated that perhapsa quarter of Iceland's population died through the ensuing famine.
Then, as now, there were more wide-ranging impacts. In Norway, the Netherlands, the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, in North America and even Egypt, the Laki eruption had its consequences, as the haze of dust and sulphur particles thrown up by the volcano was carried over much of the northern hemisphere.
Ships moored up in many ports, effectively fogbound. Crops were affected as the fall-out from the continuing eruption coincided with an abnormally hot summer. A clergyman, the Rev Sir John Cullum, wrote to the Royal Society that barley crops "became brown and withered … as did the leaves of the oats; the rye had the appearance of being mildewed".
The British naturalist Gilbert White described that summer in his classic Natural History of Selborne as "an amazing and portentous one … the peculiar haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man.
"The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. At the same time the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic … the country people began to look with a superstitious awe, at the red, louring aspect of the sun."
Across the Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin wrote of "a constant fog over all Europe, and a great part of North America".
The disruption to weather patterns meant the ensuing winter was unusually harsh, with consequent spring flooding claiming more lives. In America the Mississippi reportedly froze at New Orleans.
The eruption is now thought to have disrupted the Asian monsoon cycle, prompting famine in Egypt. Environmental historians have also pointed to the disruption caused to the economies of northern Europe, where food poverty was a major factor in the build-up to the French revolution of 1789.
Volcanologists at the Open University's department of earth sciences say the impact of the Laki eruptions had profound consequences.
Dr John Murray said: "Volcanic eruptions can have significant effects on weather patterns for from two to four years, which in turn have social and economic consequences. We shouldn't discount their possible political impacts." www.guardian.co.uk...

Laki shrunk the mighty river Nile
Researchers found that Iceland's Laki event significantly changed atmospheric circulations across much of the Northern Hemisphere. This created unusual temperature and precipitation patterns that peaked in the summer of 1783, including far below normal rainfall over much of the Nile River watershed and record low river levels.

The study provides new evidence that large volcanic eruptions north of the equator often have far different impacts on climate than those in the tropics. "While considerable research has shown that eruptions in the tropics influence climate in the Northern Hemisphere winter, this study indicates that eruptions in high-latitudes produce changes in atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere summer," said lead author Luke Oman, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.

Using a sophisticated computer model developed by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, the researchers linked the Laki eruptions to a cascade of effects that rippled across much of the Northern Hemisphere, altering surface temperatures that ultimately resulted in much below normal rainfall over the Sahel of Africa and record low water levels on the Nile River for up to a year. The Sahel is a stretch of land from the Atlantic Ocean to the "Horn of Africa" that includes the Sahara Desert and savanna areas with sparse vegetation.

"These findings may help us improve our predictions of climate response following the next strong high-latitude eruption, specifically concerning changes in temperature and precipitation," said Oman. "Many societies are very dependent on seasonal precipitation for their livelihood and these predictions may ultimately allow communities time to plan for consequences, including impacts on regional food and water supplies."

The Laki event had such a significant impact on the climate because it released large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. When combined with water vapor, the gas formed into tiny particles called aerosols that reduced incoming solar radiation, cooling the average temperature over Northern Hemisphere land masses by as much as 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer of 1783, as simulated with the computer model. Tree ring data also showed significantly reduced tree growth in the summer of 1783, indicative of the coolest summer of the last 400 years in northwestern Alaska, while tree growth in parts of Siberia was the least in 500-600 years.

These unusually cool temperatures reduced the temperature difference between the land masses of Eurasia and Africa and the Indian and Atlantic oceans, weakening the African and Indian monsoon. A monsoon is a seasonal shift in wind direction and in this region marks the return of the rainy season. Without a significant temperature contrast between land and ocean, onshore winds weaken, reducing the inland transport of moisture and rainfall in the region.

In contrast to the cooling over Northern Hemisphere land masses, computer simulations showed the weakening monsoon led to an area of significant warming of 1 to 2 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over the Sahel of Africa, southern Arabian Peninsula, and India in the summer of 1783. The researchers believe the weaker-than-normal monsoon reduced the cloud cover in the region, allowing more of the sun's energy to reach the surface, raising temperatures and further worsening drought conditions.

Computer model simulations also showed that this reduction in cloud cover was consistent with a decline in summer precipitation. "Some of the driest weather occurred over the Nile and Niger River watersheds," said Oman. "The relative lack of cloud cover and increased temperature likely amplified evaporation, further lessening water available for run-off."

To see what effect major high-latitude volcanic eruptions have on rainfall and river levels, the researchers used records on the height of the Nile River that date back to 622 A.D. Record low Nile River water levels occurred in 1783-1784 following the Laki event. Similarly low levels were observed after the Mount Katmai, Alaska, eruption in 1912, when the Niger River was also at a record low. And in 939 A.D. there was also low Nile River flow following the Eldgjá eruption in Iceland. "Our analysis found there is less than a 3 percent chance that the Laki and Katmai low river flow events could be attributed to natural climate variability," said Oman. www.nasa.gov...

This cloud was resident for 2-3 years after the eruption and led to, or accentuated the record-breaking cold winters of 1783-4 and 1784-5, and the cool summer of 1784.
In fact, large Iceland fissure eruptions must have affected the whole of the northern hemisphere with the noxious gases and sulphuric acid aerosols generated from the sulphur gases ejected into the atmosphere.
New studies by both French and US research groups have shown that the Laki aerosol cloud must have covered the whole of the northern hemisphere down to the latitude of about North Africa. Historical documentation of the atmospheric effects due to these aerosols has been found from Japan to Alaska.
www.open2.net...

PART 2

ELDGJÁ 934-940.

As large as the Laki eruption was, it was exceeded by Iceland's A.D. 934-940 Eldgjá eruption, which occurred in the same mountainous region of Iceland. During the six years that this eruption was active, lava erupted from several vents along a discontinuous 75-km-long (47-mile-long) fissure system and buried more than 781 square km (302 square miles) of southern Iceland. That is like burying all of Hawaiian Kīlauea east of Pu`u `O`o beneath lava. The total volume erupted was about 19.5 cubic km (4.7 cubic miles), or roughly equivalent to 163 years of continuous output at Kīlauea at its current eruption rate.
In terms of gas output, the Eldgjá eruption was the largest producer of volcanic gas in historic time, releasing 219 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Though historical records are harder to come by for this eruption, its effects were likely as devastating to Iceland's people and livestock as the Laki eruption several centuries later.
Fortunately, huge eruptions like those at Eldgjá and Laki are very unusual; otherwise, life as we know it probably would not be. Though the hazards posed by lava flows and volcanic gas here on the Big Island are understandably important to us, they are still tiny in comparison to what our big blue planet is capable of. So, the next time Kīlauea's lava flows hit the news, or vog blankets your favorite community, think of Laki and Eldgjá and be thankful you live in Hawai`I (hvo.wr.usgs.gov...).

Was the Eldgjá eruption responsible for the collapse of the Later Jin Dynasty in China?

Eldgjá is a volcanic canyon in Iceland. Eldgjá and the nearby Laki craters are part of the same volcanic system as Katla in the south of the country. Eldgjá means "fire canyon" in Icelandic.
Situated between Landmannalaugar and Kirkjubæjarklaustur, the canyon is at its greatest 270m deep and 600m wide. It was discovered by Þorvaldur Þoroddsen in 1803. The first documented eruption in 934 was the largest flood basalt in historic time. An estimated 18 km³ of lava poured out of the earth.
Evidence suggests that this catastrophe was at least partly responsible for the collapse of the Later Jin Dynasty in China. Based on Chinese historical sources, the possible climatic impact in China of the prolonged Eldgjá eruption starting around 934 AD was investigated. An extremely hot summer was reported in 934 AD; hundreds of people died of the intense heat of this summer in Luoyang, the capital of the Later Tang Empire (923-936 AD). Snowless (and possibly also mild) winters probably occurred successively following the Eldgjá eruption until 938 AD. In 939 AD, cold weather set in abruptly and lasted for about 3 years; whereas peak cooling occurred in 939AD. In the summer of 939 AD, it snowed in the southeast of the Inner Mongolia Plateau (about 40-44°N, 113-123°E). From 939AD to 941 AD, hard winters occurred successively in China. Worse, unprecedented drought and plague of locusts broke out in 942 AD and persisted in 943 AD. More than several hundred thousand people were starved to death. By comparison with the tree-ring evidence and uncovered European historical evidence, the spatial response to the Eldgjá eruption appeared to be complex, whereas hemispheric or global cooling occurred in 939-942 AD (cat.inist.fr...).
The very high H2SO4 yield of the Eldgjá and Thjórsá events strongly suggests that they were climatically significant eruptions. We also surmise that the eruption columns were relatively low (

Originally posted by mclinking
Awesome video link. A must see!

www.youtube.com...#

mclinking

Thank-you so much for that link this is the best video I've seen of the eruption so far ... she does sound very angry but what a magnificent show she put's on.

Amazing. Woody

reply to post by woodwytch


Second that!

Best Eyja video

and another one wich is good to read.. the 140 year cycle of iceland..

www.niburu.nl...

Eruption is over it seems.

Good thing. :-)

See you all around and take care.

Nid

A bit of an assumption to think the Eruption is over simply because the plume hasn't been seen ground-wise today because of bad weather. If anything eruptional volume continues to maintain itself to what it was earlier this weekend, however there is trends in GPS deformation observations showing the volcano now starting to deflate as its conduit is slowly either becoming exhausted or migrating to Hekla/Katla.

Originally posted by Nidwin
Eruption is over it seems.

Good thing. :-)

See you all around and take care.

Nid

Ok cya bud

oh just before you pop off is this official or just from looking at the cams etc ?

Cam with some clear skies opening up over the Plume, obviously still evident and as mentioned before, still going strong.

www.mulakot.net...

Originally posted by thoughtsfull

Originally posted by MoorfNZ
Sooooo, first we have a quake under Hekla... and just now one right over by Katla... things are getting interesting...

en.vedur.is...=map

I saw the Helka one last night and thought it interesting to see if start to spread.. not expecting to see on under katla today.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend and if the trend continues..

Be interesting - spread? No it would not! Quakes under Katla I can stand, quakes under Hekla are a definite "I want to be somewhere else other than 700 miles from Hekla" scenario given the very little warning that one gives before going up.

Originally posted by Nidwin
Eruption is over it seems.

Good thing. :-)

See you all around and take care.

Nid

Eh? Not bleedin' likely it ain't! Where did you dream that gem up from?

15 minutes ago it looked like this, which does not look very 'over' to me.

files.abovetopsecret.com...

Yep looks over to me and stevie wonder too
Get real!!!

reply to post by PuterMan


Well, I'm not going to jump up and down and panic regardless of what happens.. since there is not a lot else we can do but watch and see, while hoping for the best..

I have family and friends in the aviation industry including pilots, so this impacts them deeply (tho not as much as those in Iceland)..

So on that score I will apologise if my use of the word "interesting" struck a nerve with you, it was not meant in that way.