Iceland evacuates hundreds as volcano erupts again

APNews ^ | 14. apríl 2010 | GUDJON HELGASON and JILL LAWLESS

[VU4G10]

A volcano under a glacier in Iceland erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air, closing a major road and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters.

Authorities evacuated 800 residents from around the Eyjafjallajokull glacier as rivers rose by up to 10 feet (3 meters).

Emergency officials and scientists said the eruption under the ice cap was 10 to 20 times more powerful than one last month, and carried a much greater risk of widespread flooding.

"This is a very much more violent eruption, because it's interacting with ice and water," said Andy Russell, an expert in glacial flooding at the University of Newcastle in northern England. "It becomes much more explosive, instead of a nice lava flow oozing out of the ground."

[SW6906]

A friend in Iceland sent me that picture. I forwarded it to a bunch of people and some claim it is ‘shopped. Where did you get it?

[SW6906]

"Do we have any hotshots who could help us track the ash cloud by satellite?"

Check this out:

http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/IPPS/html/MSG/RGB/ASH/ICELAND/index.htm

Click on 24. Shift, click and drag on the image to resize it. This is a BIG eruption. A colleague just emailed from the UK and said the airport is a mess with canceled flights. It is shutting down air traffic in Europe!

[SW6906]

Leigur? Who is Leigur? I think I meant Leifur!! ;o)

[SW6906]

Ping to post 82

[BOBTHENAILER]

very tempting to join just so I can get the inside skinny

[Quix]

THANKS MUCH.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow!

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[Leifur]

Thanks, I will, and I hope you are right. The thing is that though last time we went through a "worse" in our history it resulted in the loss of a third part of our population.

And actually, that was just the lowest point of a steady decline that lasted 800 years of being a tax-colony of a European power, our prosperity has always been in inverse proportions of how much foreign power has been over us.

And sadly, some want us to join the EU now and thus forsake our independence and future prosperity for a short time gain. Here is the picture you posted taken from an icelandic site

(http://www.pressan.is/Ekki_missa_af_thessu/Lesa_ekki_missa/taknmyndir-eldgossins-fara-sem-eldur-i-sinu-um-heim-allan---ragnarok-og-kolski-myndir)





This picture shows the holes beneath the glacier, some say it is the face of the devil



Here are other pictures:





Here are a lot of videos from the main news site in Iceland (a conservative one ;):
http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/sjonvarp/?play=1;media_id=48356

[SW6906]

Thanks for the pictures and link.

Check this out

[Leifur]

Yeah, it is quite funny, I had already posted the link on another thread about the eruption.

We have always found it strange reading other countries languages, that they are often spoken so far differently to how they are written, but, at least for us, our words are always spoken exactly like the sounds of the words. That is why we have f.e. never understood spelling contexts, you just have to sound out the words to know how they are spelled. In fact, many of us do it for english words that have a hard to remember spelling, like f.e. be-a-uti-ful, e-mer-gency and so on.

Of course we are so small that we are more exposed to and dependent on learning foreign languages and with the exposure to their culture to us, we think we can laugh at many things and that we know so much, but of course if it was the other way around many of the things we do would be found silly.

But I have to give due to where due is bound, and they surely are getting better saying this most natural of words;)

[Steve Van Doorn]

I am wondering how you are doing? I noticed the ash has pushed back on to Reykjavik today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-4TB47N3_Y

[Leifur]

We are just very fine and don´t in fact notice it much here, although it is getting a little weary for the people that live near to it, having often zero visibility out of their houses.







Now they are predicting a possible ashfall in Reykjavík on thursday, which incidentally is our oldest holiday, then we celebrate the first day of summer according to the old viking age calender.



Here are a few more pictures:
http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/myndasyrpa.html?cat_id=4;album=1051;img=28533

But as they also are expecting rain (go figure on the first day of summer), there are doubts that it will reach us here in Reykjavík. The rain has also resulted in the ash becoming a thick sludge everywhere in the most affected areas. But interestingly, people in western part of Denmark, found their cars covered with a thin layer of dust recently.
I recomend the video called "Ash causing more than travel voes" from cnn, it shows very well the local impact:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/

[EBH]

Indeed it is interesting the reading about Katla. They are looking for activity now, but in most instances the explosive eruption of Katla is around 6 months after Eyja.

[EBH]

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/19179699

How to Pronounce Eyjafjallajokull

Fri Apr 16, 6:30AM PT - ABC News 2:09 | 113268 views

An interpreter explains how to say the Iceland volcano’s name.

[EBH]

In 1994, the formation of a near-horizontal sill under Eyjafjallajökull was preceded by microearthquake activity interpreted as due to opening of a feeder channel from greater depth. In July 1999, a new unrest period began, with activity at both volcanoes. Bursts of seismic tremor, sudden outburst of flood of meltwater, and formation of ice cauldrons occurred at the Katla caldera in association with either an intrusion or a minor subglacial eruption there. A five-year-long interval of magma flow to a shallow magma chamber under Katla followed. The onset of magma flow to the shallow Katla chamber coincided with the onset of another sill-forming episode under Eyjafjallajökull, which took place over a period of at least 8 months. A new unrest episode at Eyjafjallajökull began in June, 2009 and over a three month period.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AGUFM.V32B..03S

[maryz]

If you have knowledge in this field, could you please explain to me how glacial ice could impede a volcano, as there are so much heat and pressure involved in a volcanic eruption.

Well, I have no special knowledge, but as I understand it, you have to buy into the whole global warming spiel for this to make sense; a scientist ("scientist"?) of some sort was quoted in another article as saying that, though this eruption didn't seem to be due to global warming, GW would melt the ice covering others and so cause the other volcanoes to erupt. Ice melting causes volcanoes. In some people's view. Anyway. :(

Hey, makes as much sense as anything else in GW theory!

[winoneforthegipper]

Another awesome static charge photo of the plume over Eyjaf~!

http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID25803/images/2010-04-19_063308.jpg

[Quix]

incredible.

thx.

[Steve Van Doorn]

"Now they are predicting a possible ashfall in Reykjavík on thursday"

make sure you get some dust masks. Remember some of the ash is glass shards. which will cause enormous problems years from now and i don't want that to be you or your friends.

I would suggest stay inside as much as possible use a basic humidifier. The water molecules will pull dust from the air then vacuum the floors as you normally would do. When this is over clean out you heater/AC unit.