Today in the morning hours the fissure which had produced lava flows 2 days ago erupted again. One could get quite a good glimpse on the ongoing eruption on the Milacams.
The eruption occurs at the same place as last time ( Holuhraun). The fissure seems to be 1,5 to 1,8 km long. It appears in a place called Holuhraun ( Quote Carl: “Soon to be Holudyngja, and after that we have Holubunga.” ) but the lava comes from Bardarbunga through a fewer tube. The new shield volcano which might be forming does not yet have a magma chamber of its own.
Eruption starting.CreditS: Junior
Both following gifs by sCyborg
Tremor looked like this: Thanks BillG
Images from the University of Iceland start popping up on Twitter and many of them are simply stunning.
New lavaflows. Credit Uni Iceland via Twitter
avalonlightphotoart did a lay over to google earth showing the quake locations in the morning.
Credit xxx
Peter Cobbold translated with Giggle:
http://www.mbl.is 08:32
Giggle Translate
“This is a much more powerful eruption than the last. It is much, much more lava coming in this eruption, but the volcano, “says Sveinbjörn Steinþórsson technician from the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, but he looked eruption of lava pocket this morning, along with other scientists.
“Strokes are 20-30 meters high. There are no explosions in the eruption. The eruption occurred at the exact same place as the other day, except that the crack reaches 700-800 meters further to the north. The crevice is out on the sand, ie out of the hole lava.
This is much more healthy than the eruption of the day. The activity is stable at about 1,200 meters long fissure. There is a crater south part of the rift is odd, then erupts in all the cracks. ”
Sveinbjörn Steinþórsson technician from the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland also saw the eruption that began August 29. That eruption lasted only about four hours. “It really fizzy died immediately. It reduced the time we were running from the hole lava, but started up again in a few moments. This eruption has been more active since we got on at. 6 in the morning and it does not seem to be falling down. The eruption now changed little while we were watching it. It Jost bit while we were running out and has been a constant for about two hours. It’s been quite a lot of lava here on the east side of the crack, but we can not see what it is yet much lava west side. ”
The scientists returned from the eruption site on kl. 8 in the morning. The weather was beginning to deteriorate. Considerably high sand storm is in the area and dry. Forecasted deteriorating weather east later in the day”
Last night many readers got enthusiastic because lights were visible on the webcams provided by Mila. The scientists driving around had a good laugh. They fooled us. What was visible were only cars.
Such cars fooled us. Seen by daylight in front of the new fissure eruption. Credit Uni Iceland via Twitter.
I am using 1 image ( screenshot) which i did myself but since i have troubles accessing the cams, most images come from readers who uploaded their screenshots to tiny pic, i downloaded them and uploaded to VC. Please excuse if i did not mention your name. I am in from my holiday hotel with a very bad wlan connection and i am just writing a post instead of having fun on the beach. So the last post does not have over 1000 comments attached and starts being really slow. Nevertheless i suggest you go back and read the last post. You will need it to understand what is going on.
https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/a-look-at-the-overall-picture/
by DracoPhyrite
It would be wise to check out the youtube live stream instead of the cams. Youtube can handle huge loads, the Milacams can handle a lot but not what’s going on right now.
There is a storm over Iceland now. The remnants of Hurricane Cristobal, so fog and clouds will cover the eruption, most likely, but is still ongoing as this post goes in. And supposedly much stronger than the last event.
Ursula summed important post up:
IMPORTANT INFO FOR NEW READERS:
Up in the menu https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/essential-info-for-new-readers/
Spica
Update: Carl:
But, remember to stay on the where the wind is not blowing, this is a very gassy eruption high in SO2. Even one breath of the exhaust would kill you.
VolcanoCafé 
Hello, everyone. I just spent the last 5 hours catching up on all the comments (while also watching the current activity). I want to thank everyone for the information and thought provoking questions you have been posting. I especially want to tell Diana how impressed I am with her rumination this morning. I think it was this morning – seems like a week ago at this point! Is there a Pulitzer for ruminations? If so, I nominate Diana. Carl and the Dragons – you are like family – you teach us, guide us, discipline us when needed and try to keep us safe. You laugh with us and at us, and when needed you offer a cyber hug. I love this place and appreciate each and every one of you. 😀
Thank you Bobbi 🙂 Come over to the bar before it closes and have a relaxing cup of Hot chocolate or something stronger with me 🙂
Putting my shoes on now. Thanks.
I second that!
I’m learning that you have got to be quick here! My last reply should have been up before Diana’s to make any sense!
So is that lava lake forming from flow down towards the camera from the fissure or from something else?
It is lava from the fissure pooling up as the flood basalt forms.
I don’t think that is a flood basalt.
Experts say this is just like Krafla fires.
It is nothing like Krafla.
And many of them have recanted on that statement by now.
http://earthice.hi.is/krafla_fires
Ármann Höskuldsson said that the eruption as it is now is comparable to one of the bigger ones during the Krafla Fires episode.
http://www.visir.is/-svipad-ad-staerd-og-staerstu-gosin-i-kroflueldunum-/article/2014140839909
They didn’t have the instruments back then to follow up the intrusions. Perhaps there was also a very big one then.
The feeding mechanism is different, the level of earthquakes has been orders of magnitude larger, the spreading quite a lot larger, and they did have equipment there at the time.
And the dyke was thin and shallow at Krafla, here it is high and deep.
Almost nothing is the same.
I beg someone to actually find more than a single thing that is the same. Just give me two things. And I will counter with ten things that are different (out of an even longer list).
Inge, I think you have a hang-up concerning the word flood here. Not ONE person is saying that this is a flood basalt eruption on the scale of the Siberian or Deccan Traps. You must see it in context! Here we have a river of lava and when a river overflows its banks, it is a flood or flooding the plain. This is the image that comes up in people’s minds! Try and show some latitude here, please, instead of nit-picking?
http://i62.tinypic.com/2njvgxc.jpg Sooo hardcore
Oo still can’t post images [IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/2njvgxc.jpg[/IMG]
the lava front is really clear. What a change from this morning !
Forgive ignorant post: If this is a new shield volcano, but shield volcano needs a magma chamber, wouldn’t the dyke be the chamber?
Okay, let me explain.
The shield will form as a part of a fissure remains active and the rest closes down, and under that a chamber will form out of the dyke. But it is still not a volcano, that only happens if an independent feeder system form down to the mantle.
I thought you said, this is a flood basalt? Flood basalts are not the same thing as shield volcanoes.
Good, now let me educate you a bit here.
First a large fissure forms, that first forms a flood basalt, but if the eruption continues sometimes the fissure partially close down and a wider central outlet forms, from there the lava flows forth and with enough time a shield will be born.
Perhaps you understand better now. Otherwise I would be happy to write another post on how it works, I could for instance use Theistareykjarbunga as a splendid answer as to how this works.
Hate to disagree with you Carl but in my understanding the term flood basalt is only applied to the largest of basaltic eruptions, which start at around 2000 m thick and covering areas of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Isn’t a better description of the current eruption a large lava field at the moment?
Interesting, do you know of any single layer that large and thick? I don’t, it more sounds like you are describing the effects of a several layered trap-formation. I have seen both Veidivötn and Laki described as flood basalts.
But, let us call this a lava-flow to not get bogged down into definition battles 🙂
It still does not change what I was trying to describe for IngeB above.
If this was to continue it is more like just to start building up into a cone it’s to viscous to spread out far enough,it it has more gas it would probably be erupting scoria?
I agree with your description in response to IngeB at 20:37 and don’t want to get bogged down in definition wars either! Just to clarify what I was trying to say, I personally have only heard of the term flood basalt applied to trap-scale formations.
Traps are good examples of layered flood basalt, but the individual layers that I have seen are from 2 to 50 meters thick. But staple 50 of them ontop of each other and you get 2000 meters of them. I saw one in africa in a canyon that was 1200 meters high. Impressive, and there are even larger.
I think I will call this a “rivulet basalt” come think about it 🙂
Ok, just dug out one of my old Geology text books (Earth by Press and Siever), its definition of flood basalt is as follows
” A plateau basalt extending many kilometers in flat, layered flows originating in fissure eruptions.”
So now we have the problem of deciding what ‘many’ kilometers is!
Hm…
Askja_girl who no doubt has swum in Viti. Cast your mind back to the Siberian Traps – which IS a “flood basalt eruption”. While the exact figures are in doubt, let’s do some maths together, ok? 🙂
The original volume of lava is estimated to range from 1 million to 4 million km3. Let’s call that 3 million km3!!!
The eruption lasted between, estimates, 1½ to 3 million years. For convenience, let’s use the last figure!
This works out at 1 km3 per year. Hardly impressive is it!
A year (365.25 days) is 31557600 seconds long.
This gives us an average eruption rate of 1,000,000,000 m3 per 31557600 seconds or 31.688 m3 per second
At an estimated 250 m3 per second, the rate of this eruption i FOUR to EIGHT TIMES as large as the Siberian traps eruption.
QED
Taken some time to have a bit more of a think and taking one more attempt to explain my preference not to describe the current lava flow as a flood basalt (YET).
Hopefully we can all agree that this cliff in the east fjords of Iceland is composed of flood basalts. Obviously the whole lava pile shown in the cliff was not created in one eruption (which is the point I think DracoPyrite has been trying to make to me), it has only built up into such a height through many eruptions over a long period of time.
I think (and this is where I might be entirely wrong) of each of the layers visible in the cliff as ‘a flood basalt’ – which according to the textbook definition I included somewhere in this thread must be continuous for many kilometers. In my mind each thick layer visible in the cliff face could have been created by either
A) a particularly large single lava flow (created by an eruption of either huge volume or very long duration) or
B) an amagamation of several smaller individual lava flows similar to the multiple lava flows from a Krafla fires episode, erupted over a duration of about 10 years, subsequently followed by a longer period without eruption. This would allow for weathering of the top surface to make the top of that ‘layer’ in the cliff. Therefore each lava flow is not ‘a flood basalt’ by itself, but combined with others could be a part of one.
Only time will tell what is going to happen to the lava flow from the current eruption and whether it will qualify as a flood basalt in its own right.
Very happy to be told that I am wrong, just wanted to attempt to clarify where I was coming from! Sorry if I’m being to nitpicky with terminology!
I still have a problem with the definition flood basalt.
The cliff in the west fjord I would dub to be a trap formation. (Iceland is filled of them)
Now, they are not the size of their famous Deccan or Siberian siblings, but they do follow the same basic rules.
Now to the flood basalts, to me the individual layer (if large enough and done in a single flood) would be a flood basalt, and the layering would be the trap. Otherwise the flood basalt would just be a synonym of trap and be highly redundant.
Now, I am going to propose a definition.
Flood basalt = singular outpouring of basalt lava consisting of more than 1 cubic kilometers of lava in one single eruption. Simple and quantifiable.
So, right now this eruption would be about 1 / 40 out of a flood basalt.
Now over to my original comment.
Theistareykjarhraun was about 10 cubic kilometers of a flood basalt, and as the fissure closed up along its length with the exception of a single cone it started to build to 30 cubic kilometer Theistareykjarbunga shield.
If we think on a smaller scale here it is what I suspect will happen. A fissure that diminishes to a central vent that creates a shield. After all, it seems to be pretty common for the region.
Please write a post Carl! Your posts are always so informative. I don’t know the difference between what looks like just a lava flow spreading out on the webcam (flowing downhill slightly?) and a flood basalt. Educate me, please?
Let us call this a lava-flow or a lava-field for the moment when I try to find a good definition for it.
I will get around to shield building in a post soon.
Now, when does it turn into a flood basalt? Well, there is just not a good standard for that. So that is up for anyone to decide for themselves.
I certainly wouldn’t take a lot of notice of what it says on Wikipedia regarding the ‘definition’ of a flood basalt.
There it is described as being “…up to 12000 m thick” – which clearly is nonsense. Mount Everest is ‘only’ 8848 metres high.
When it has gone on for at least 1,000,000 years (see calculation above)
Depends on the definition of flood basalt here. It’s not that we are talking about trap eruptions here. This sounds like fearmongering.
And I thought we would polite here with each other! 😯
rescued #DraGra
DragonIllumination: The defining feature of a flood basalt eruption is that it has gone on for a very long period of time, usually a million or a few million years. The average eruption rate is not impressive and certainly less than the current eruption, a fact that unfortunately not many realise. 🙂 / Pyrite
Yes, I just wrote that above.
Oh, it was not my intention to be rude. I just wanted to explain well what I was talking about.
I honestly wasn’t trying to be rude either – very willing to accept I might be wrong!
Oh, I am wrong often when it comes to terminology. I should really always go and look up the terms. I have a memory problem with details like that. The larger complex processes get stuck in my brain forever, but the nitpicky details just falls out of my memory as soon as I read it.
Ah words. Always leading us astray. I can see how this confusion started. First is the natural association with Laki that all of us have at least in the back of our minds. Second is the normal association with the normal use of the word… To flood the landscape etc.. Third is the indisputable fact that Iceland is our Siberian trap and we are living in the middle of it. All kinds of adds up to using the term here although both Nyamuragira and Tolbachik easily dwarf Holuhraun so far. But it is early days yet. Time will tell. We’ll all be dead by then but, hell… This could very well be a flood basalt in the making.
Makes sense. Thanks.
Video of lava flow from Cambridge researchers:
Sweet!
Agreed, reminds me of Hawaii. Isn’t that the place where the name of this type of lava originates from?
Yeah I think so 🙂
Yes, pahehoe lava and the type of this eruption is also called Hawaiian eruption with fire curtains (see also Erik Klemetti’s newest post on this, http://www.wired.com/2014/08/intense-fissure-eruption-started-in-iceland/)
Although I think Icelanders have their own name for this lava type, is that correct?
Yeah the Icelandic term for pāhoehoe is helluhraun (literal translation is slab-lava
Would that now be still Pāhoehoe or already ‘A’ā lava flow? I’m having trouble distinguishing the two. Looks viscous enough for ‘A’ā but smooth enough for Pāhoehoe…
it certainly is borderline right now.
Wow. This clip really demonstrates the scale of this even, more so than the telephoto cams. Looks like a lava beach!
nice video, Ive shared it onto the VC Facebook page for visitors that are not on here…
Shows the dreaded dust too.
You can see the sand/dust that it’s flowing over – I suppose that would just melt and make a thin layer of glass under the lava.
Oh Thank you again Ursula. That’s awesome. You can hear it below the wind sounds too. 🙂
take that Burning Man ! Phew !
Great find Ursula. The terrain is really flat.
That is absolutely fascinating! It appears to be very sandy there – just love watching that lava crawl over the sand, engulfing any rocks in its way – enthralling stuff! 😀
Aqua Modis satellite image (NASA) from today with fire and thermal anomalies overlay:
Screenshot from https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/
More full screen eye-candy -> click on the image for the full version
Just a bit of light entertainment 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh5Acx0PeMI
oh My! Which Volcano was that? Warning. Don’t try this at home (if you have a spare Volcano there) or anywhere else for that matter. What a nutter!
that was the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions, before the main caldera went kaboom
🙂 Thanks of course it must be Iceland with a truck like that 😀
Cam panned right , looks even larger now
Woah, is it spreading? WebCamMan has pulled back and there seems to be a lot more going on to the right of the picture.
Could be just lava. Not sure.
Just lava, I think, see my screenshot in the next comment (click on pic to see it better).
Ye, I think so too. Nice lake, can’t wait to see pics from coast guard (overflight).
Screenshot:
Looks like the lava spreading out rather than the fissure growing.
And one more full screen pic, with evening sky for contrast. Beatiful!
(don’t forget to click on the pic for the full version)
Ok and now I’ll stop clogging the comments with screenshots 😛
Sigh, just too beautiful. I have to restrain myself to post masses of screenshots as well, lol.
Hehe, yes, it’s addictive, isn’t it? I keep wanting to take more (and there’s another great one coming, will post it in a moment…)
One last [░]> of coffee for me, and [░]> of coffe to all of you before I go to bed.
Thanks and schleep very well 🙂 sweet Volcanic dreams .
Don´t know if this player is a mirror of the Mila webcam or not, at least it is working for me:
http://www.visir.is/haegt-ad-fylgjast-med-gosinu-a-vefnum/article/2014140839916
Yes, it is a mirror of cam 2 (I have it running 🙂 )
It works for me too ! Low-res but live pictures at last – thank you.
Im waiting for Beazulbubb to pop out and wave
He has nothing to do with the beuty of nature…
And for a slightly different take
Noice, new desktop thanks you 🙂
Flood basalt lava flow is bigger than the fissure. WOW, still going strong
you can really see it expanding from moment to moment, really cool (or hot…)
I just took a similar screenshot but you beat me to it. It is a thing of beauty!
LOL sorry, the amount of times I’ve taken a screenshot only to go back to the page and see someone else post it 🙂 anyway I’m going to bed, night all
Are their any estimates on the temp of this lava?
I am thinking it is in the 1000c just from the colour bright yellow fading to rich reds it has to be hot to get yellow heat
Question based on daytime images
I know how badly over driven the cams get in high contrast environments (night time)
1200 according to Univ of Iceland
Last full screen pic (click on pic for full version):
I have a feeling that all these events in Iceland affect the fault of the Atlantic. The smallest earthquake recounted here (north) is 4.6
From http://earthquakes.volcanodiscovery.com/map/atlantic
Seems like if the rift is twisting and opening, you may see one offshore of Norway in next couple days, maybe a mass waste in the deeps just offshore ? or more likely on the edge of the trench due east of Iseland.
Will be interesting anyway.
Lots of action up north till this started, no idea whether this is increasing strain on the turn of the MAR further up.
I think Norway might be pushing it a little bit. Rift quakes in this area stay around the MAR. But you get the occasional old tectonic slippage beyond – like n Scotland in the pic.
Screenshot from
http://baering.github.io/
displaying the quakes of the last two hours. I wonder whether someone is watching the area northeast of Askja where the last 2,6 quake recently ocurred near the surface. Maybe another little firework developing over there?
grrr *firework” not fireword. Firewords occuring here in the blog not in nature, lol.
Fixed that for ya /Dragoness
Luckily the Bardacams are quite close to the summit of Valdada (I was able to catch a glimpse of the small lake on the top of the mountain when cam2 was zooming out). That means, the cams could just swing to the other side — if this is technically possible — and show the fireworks there. Comforting.
This is what I was saying earlier
The 3DBulge enhanced visualization shows it even better
There is a triangular “wall” of quakes running running down from the surface under Herdubreid and if you look it is perfectly lined up with the wall of fissure quakes
It looks like they are continuations of each other, in between there is a faint wall of quakes connecting the two
2D pictures just don’t show it well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrTCLZ7ISuE&feature=youtu.be , On the Move
Am I the only one here who thinks this is just the start of something, and as time progresses, its just gonna get bigger?
No seems to be happening all the time now
No, you’re not the only one. 🙂
Bard 1 cam is providing quite a show right now:
It’s beautiful, I love the way the clouds are starting to be lit from underneath, this is going to be amazing to watch as the light fades 🙂
Thanks for covering cam1! I’m always afraid to loose cam2 when switching, so I won’t.
Helluhraun
Not an easy sight for a firefighter.
Wonderful!
Hi. This is getting really exiting… The smaller fissure (getting bigger?) in the left hand side of the B2 camera is in the direction of the Vatnajøkull glacier right? or am I wrong?
And; Are there any news from today regarding the ice-caldera over Bardabunga?
Are we going to see another 5+ there within the next couple of hours… ?
I believe the Vatnajøkull glacier is to left of screen (south-westerly). Have not heard any recent news of Bárðarbunga’s caldera but large ‘quakes ongoing there. We’re likely to see another mag 5+ but not necessarily in the next couple of hours; in other words, I have no idea when the next 5+ will happen. 🙂
Somebody wanted to know about lava temperature:
thanks a bunch
What I’m asking myself:
The heat there must be pretty impressive. So in what distance will you feel it in your face? 30km? 20km? 10km? 2km? Less than 1 km?
Someone here who is experienced with that?
it might be that the expansion on the left could be from a “lava lake”, not widening of the fissure.
I meant widening on the right. (north)
That area to the South-east or to the right of the webcam is an area that appears to have reactivated this afternoon. Initially it showed occasional spurts of fire then became a steady area of fire, now it seems to be putting out magma along with the rest of the fissure.
DOH! To the Right, not Left.
OOPs done it again!! Left not Right. Got it right this time. Shamefaced and blushing now.
ROFL I think we are all a little brain dead about now. 😀
Stunning.
http://prntscr.com/4ifmi2
http://prntscr.com/4ifn13
(hope i did it well, didn’t want to post the images, only the links)
I just took a screenshot Bardacam 1 at 10.18 (UK time) because the reflected glow on the clouds was rather lovely. Here it is:
Link fixed #DraGra
Stunning! Thank you.
What’s with the line of quakes extending to the NE of Askja? Result of building stress or did our magma find the Askja bypass? 🙂
Here is a picture, it is interesting how it looks like it follows the landscape
fixed link #DraGra
Thanks, you guys are so on the ball!!
Makes this place a joy to visit
Had to say it 🙂
Anyone else watching on Bardacam 1? I’ve just compared the current height of the lava effusion with my photo 10 mins ago & it’s suddenly a lot higher. Will try to screenshot & post shortly.
Looks like the gates of hell opening. I know many Nat Geo photographers must be sad to not be in Iceland right now !! Bard 1 right now:
Maybe the lights we saw were photojournalists descending en mass on the scene. Photogs tend to have more guts than brains sometimes. (I used to claim it was the darkroom chemicals pickling their grey matter, but that excuse doesn’t work anymore …)
Nah. False alarm. I think it’s to do with the smoke billowing.
The light of this eruption is beautiful but what of the gases. I know the gases are not reaching the upper atmosphere. I have a nagging question in my head. How much gas (so2 and Co2 and F) is coming out and affecting the local environment?
Are flares not prohibited in Icelandic stadiums?
Cauliflowergedden: “Stadium? What stadium, officer? This is Mum and Dad’s backyard and they say it’s okay for me to flare here whenever I want!”
🙂
It’ looks like it is becoming more concentrated in one spot maybe a main vent becoming established?
Wow and wow and wow again…
http://prntscr.com/4iftn1
Yeah, really “wow”, lol.
One last bit of full screen eye candy – cam 1, click on image for full size.
I am fairly sure I just saw headlights on the right side of Barda 1 (again) either that or its time for me to get some sleep….oh well it probably is anyway.
okay maybe im not nuts
I’m sure, these are headlights. I envy the scientists deeply… must be absolutely awesome to be there at night…
What’s that new little light in the right corner? a new vent?
http://prntscr.com/4ify2d
http://prntscr.com/4ifz0j
Wider, then disappear… °_°
What is happening in the foreground to the right of the main fissure on Bard 1? Doesn’t look like headlights…
ok, I could be wrong, they’re moving out of frame.
Cam1, anyone. Right side. Crazy scientists in their Jeeps or another vent?
So as long as no ash no flight problems as of yet?
New point of light to the far right of the screen on Bardacam 1 (22.44 UK time):
Any takers for this one? New point of eruption? Scientists? Extra-terrestrial craft? Lost tourists?
Its a lava shark…..
Yep – be very afraid.
From next month, Sci Fi channel will be making nothing but movies about this. A year from now, it will be already up to Hurrirupting Sharligators III – at least it gives Sylvester Stallone something to do after Rocky MCXXIII.
Yeah, “Rocky MCXXIII – Wheelchair Boxing” was a bit of a flop at the box office but I can see “Hurrirupting Sharligators – Cauliflowergedden” doing very well!
See these ones too:
http://prntscr.com/4ify2d
http://prntscr.com/4ifz0j
New vent, i’d say, but i’m totally *no expert* etc XD
Second picture definitely car headlights. Don’t know about the first but I would assume the same.
Just some after dinner work…
Oh LOL… again XD
Scientists heading home. ( to Drekagil hut ?)
This webcam is simply stunning!
Oh what a lovely bonfire! Best I ever saw! 😀
Anyone else see the small red dot a lot nearer the camera on the extreme right edge of the picture? I expect and hope that is just a lens flare. ?
Why are my posts always late? I must just be a slow typer.
And me too!