Ash across the sea: Eyjafjallajökull’s plume at the NASA Earth Observatory 15 April 2010
Posted by admin in Eyjafjöll, Iceland, NASA Earth Observatory.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, NASA Earth Observatory
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A dramatic new image at the NASA Earth Observatory shows the reach of the ongoing Eyjafjallajökull eruption. The image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on 15 April 2010, shows the brown ash-heavy plume produced by the eruption stretching south-eastwards across the Atlantic from Iceland (top left) to the Shetlands (bottom right). This is the ash that has been disrupting air traffic across northern Europe today.
Ash plume across the North Atlantic – NASA Earth Observatory, 15 April 2010
For more dramatic satellite imagery, see Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland (NASA Earth Observatory) and The Big Picture: Volcanic ash (BBC News).
Image problem 15 April 2010
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Events in Iceland are currently bringing loads of new visitors here, which is great but which puts pressure on the Photobucket free image hosting service we use at this blog. When Photobucket feels under pressure images temporarily disappear. If you’ve noticed missing pictures on some of the posts, that’s the reason.
Sorry about that. There is a solution: if you like this blog and want to see it thrive put your hands in your pockets and cough up some cash, so that we can leave the constraints of free image hosting services behind.
Iceland eruption: UK airspace closure extended (updated) 15 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Iceland.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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As a result of the ongoing Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in southern Iceland the UK’s air traffic control organization NATS has extended the closure of United Kingdom airspace announced earlier today. NATS statement:
Statement on Icelandic volcanic eruption: Thurs April 15, 14:00
The cloud of volcanic ash is now spread across the UK and continuing to travel south. In line with international civil aviation policy, no flights other than agreed emergencies are currently permitted in UK controlled airspace. Following a review of the latest Met Office information, NATS advises that these restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 0700 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest. We will review further Met Office information and at 2000 today (UK time) we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1300 (UK time) tomorrow.
We continue to work closely with airports, airlines, and the rest of Europe to understand and mitigate the implications of the volcanic eruption.
As well as the total closure of UK airspace, the ash emissions from the Icelandic eruption are causing extensive disruption across the north Atlantic and northern Europe. The BBC has detailed and up-to-date coverage, and Dr Klemetti has more volcanological insights at the Eruptions blog: Threat of Icelandic ash closes airspace over Europe.
UPDATE – the latest statement from NATS is as follows:
Statement on Icelandic volcanic eruption: Thurs April 15, 20:20
The cloud of volcanic ash continues to cover much of the UK. Following a review of the latest Met Office information, NATS advises that restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 1300 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest.
However, flights from Northern Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Prestwick may be allowed in the period from 0100 (UK time) to 1300 (UK time) tomorrow subject to individual co-ordination. North Atlantic traffic to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Belfast may also be allowed in the period.
We will review further Met Office information and at 0230 (UK time) tomorrow we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1800 (UK time) tomorrow. However be aware that the situation cannot be said to be improving with any certainty as the forecast affected area appears to be closing in from east to west. We continue to work closely with airports, airlines, and the rest of Europe to understand and mitigate the implications of the volcanic eruption.
Also, there is news that volcanic ash is arriving in small quantities at ground level in the Shetlands and northern Scotland.
Icelandic ash cloud closes UK airports (updated) 15 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Iceland.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, volcanic eruptions
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Meteosat image of the Iceland ash cloud, 07:00 GMT on 15 April 2010. Click on the image for the EUMETSAT source page.
The ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in southern Iceland has reached the British Isles and is having a severe impact upon air travel to and from UK and Irish airports. According to London VAAC the plume is reaching altitudes of 6-11 km and stretches across much of northern Britain. Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports in Scotland are all currently closed, and in England and Wales traffic at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and London’s Gatwick, Heathrow and Standsted airports being disrupted. Flights from Dublin and from Belfast’s airports have also been suspended. The flight disruption is affecting all North Atlantic flights, with the United States FAA reporting ‘most Trans-Atlantic flights’ affected this morning; and of course Iceland’s own air traffic is severely disrupted as well. Even the current British general election campaign is being affected by the flight disruption (cue lame references to seismic events and political faultlines).
Click here for Meteosat imagery of the ash cloud. The UK Met Office model of the ash cloud’s spread between 1800Z on 14 April and 1200Z on 15 April can be found here. The 1200Z image is shown below; the different colour lines indicate the approximate area of the cloud at various heights: red = between surface and FL200 (6,000 metres), green = between FL200 and FL350 (between 6,000 and 10,600 metres), blue = between FL 350 and FL 550 (between 10,600 and 16,700 metres).
UPDATE: The effects of the ash are spreading across northern Europe. Denmark is closing its airspace from 1600 GMT today, and there is air traffic disruption in Norway, Sweden and Finland. UK air traffic control organization NATS has closed United Kingdom airspace from 1200 until at least 1800 BST today. Text of NATS statement:
Statement on Icelandic volcanic eruption: Thurs April 15, 09:30
From midday today until at least 6pm, there will be no flights permitted in UK controlled airspace other than emergency situations. This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy. We continue to monitor the situation with the Met Office and work closely with airline customers and adjoining countries. We will review the situation later today to understand what further action will be required.
(‘A huge ash mushroom across major British flight paths threatens to turn the journies [sic] of thousands of families returning from their Easter holidays into a nightmare’ reports The Times, displaying the kind of journalistic quality for which they’ll be expecting online readers to pay soon. Huge ash mushroom indeed.)
For all our Eyjafjallajökull coverage: Eyjafjöll « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Flights limited due to new Icelandic eruption – Iceland Review Online, 14 April 2010
Volcano ash from Iceland hits UK flights – BBC News, 15 April 2010
Dust from volcano closes Scottish airports – BBC News, 15 April 2010
Volcanic ash ‘a very serious risk’ to aircraft – BBC News, 15 April 2010
Volcanic ash creates flights chaos across Britain – The Times, 15 April 2010
Airports closed as volcanic ash drifts towards UK – The Guardian, 15 April 2010
Volcano ash shuts many airports in U.K. – CNN, 15 April 2010
FAA says most North Trans-Atlantic flights affected by volcano danger – Wall Street Journal, 15 April 2010
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Eyjafjöll – summary information for Eyjafjallajökull, which the GVP calls Eyjafjöll (1702-02=)
Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption: NASA satellite imagery 14 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Iceland.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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The latest NASA satellite images of the resurgent Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in southern Iceland can be found via the Rapid Response System site, and are very impressive. The detail above comes from this Terra MODIS image captured on 14 April 2010: the eruption plume (white in colour – almost entirely steam from melted ice and snow) can be seen blowing due east from the seat of the eruption at Fimmvörduháls. The area shown in the image is about 150 km wide.
[Thanks to Robert Simmon of NASA for dropping us a line about the Rapid Response images.]
Quick note on the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption 14 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Iceland.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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Activity at the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in southern Iceland appears to have increased dramatically over the last few hours, with reports that the eruption has become subglacial and is producing meltwater flooding.
Regrettably, I just don’t have the time at the moment to cover the eruption here, but fortunately Dr Erik Klemetti is doing a superb job of reporting and analysing events in Iceland at the Eruptions blog, so that’s the place to go to find out what’s going on. I’ll catch up with things here when I can.
British scientists discover deepest known undersea volcanic vents 12 April 2010
Posted by admin in Caribbean, current research, submarine volcanism.Tags: black smokers, National Oceanography Centre, undersea volcanism, volcanological research
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First photograph of the world’s deepest known ‘black smoker’ vent, erupting water hot enough to melt lead, 3.1 miles deep on the ocean floor (National Oceanography Centre).
Scientists from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have discovered the deepest volcanic vents so far known, 5000 metres below the surface of the Caribbean Sea. The vents are located in the Cayman Trough in the western Caribbean, which reaches a maximum depth of 7,500 metres. Further research will analyse the geology and geochemistry of the vents and the marine life associated with them. NOC geochemist Dough Connelly, Principal Scientist of the expedition, says: ‘We hope our discovery will yield new insights into biogeochemically important elements in one of the most extreme naturally occurring environments on our planet’.
The Cayman Trough expedition, funded by the National Environment Research Council, is based aboard the UK’s new ocean-going research vessel RRS James Cook. For more on the expedition, see our post from August 2008: British scientists to investigate Caribbean deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
News
British scientific expedition discovers world’s deepest known undersea volcanic vents – EurekAlert, 11 April 2010
World’s deepest undersea vents discovered in Caribbean – BBC News, 12 April 2010
World’s deepest known undersea volcanic vents discovered – ScienceDaily, 12 April 2010
Information
National Oceanography Centre - website for the UK’s newly integrated National Oceanography Centre
Cayman Trough expedition - reports from the expedition team
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 31 March-6 April 2010 8 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, Batu Tara, Caribbean, Dukono, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Hawaii, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Karymsky, Kilauea, Kirishima, Kliuchevskoi, Redoubt, Russia, Sakura-jima, Shiveluch, Soufrière Hills, Suwanose-jima, United States, Weekly Volcanic Activity Reports.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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Some highlights from the last week of volcanic activity reported by the Global Volcanism Program:
- Eyjafjöll: a new fissure opens, lava fountain activity continues
- Kilauea: highest daily level of sulphur dioxide emissions so far in 2010 recorded on 31 March – 1,400 tonnes/day
- Kirishima: alert level raised following eruption at Shinmoe-dake
- Redoubt: a brief period of repetitive earthquakes in the summit region causes the alert level to be raised
Click on the map for a larger version (1280 x 898 pixels).
The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 31 March-6 April 2010 is now available on the Global Volcanism Program website. The following is a summary and not a substitute for the full report.
- The current report: Weekly Volcanic Activity Report.
- Previous reports: Weekly Reports Archive.
- The SI/USGS map of volcanoes discussed this week.
New activity/unrest: Eyjafjöll (Iceland), Karymsky (Russia), Kirishima (Japan), Redoubt (Alaska, USA).
Ongoing activity: Batu Tara (Indonesia), Dukono (Indonesia), Kilauea (USA), Kliuchevskoi (Russia), Sakura-jima (Japan), Shiveluch (Russia), Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), Suwanose-jima (Japan)
Easter Break for The Volcanism Blog 2 April 2010
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The Volcanism Blog will be away for Easter until (probably) 8 April; in the meantime you can as ever keep up with volcanic developments at Dr Erik Klemetti’s Eruptions blog.
The picture is of Volcán Poike, a shield volcano on Isla de Pascua – Easter Island. This picture is copyright Steffen Dubouis and comes from Flickr. It is reproduced here under the terms of the applicable Creative Commons licence.
Happy Easter and Happy Holidays to all our readers.
The new fissure at Fimmvörðuháls 1 April 2010
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Eyjafjöll, Iceland.Tags: Eyjafjallajökull, Eyjafjöll, Iceland, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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The sudden appearance of a new eruptive fissure at Fimmvörðuháls yesterday took onlookers by surprise, according to news reports from Iceland: around 50 people had to be evacuated by helicopter, and the area around the eruption is now closed to tourists. A report in Morgunblaðið puts the length of the new fissure at 300 metres, and its location as 200 metres north of the initial location of the eruption, while RÚV reports the length as 300-400 metres. The new fissure trends north-south, roughly at right angles to the east-west alignment of the first fissure. A video of the activity beginning at the new fissure can be found here (H/T Jón Frímann). The picture above is from the Fimmvörðuháls webcam, and was taken at 08:00 GMT this morning.
The Icelandic Met Office have published an article looking at what the patterns of seismicity at Eyjafjallajökull reveal about the path of the magma over the period 13-24 March: ‘The magma path revealed’. It seems that the main feeder conduit for the eruption is situated beneath the eastern part of the Eyjafjallajökull ice-cap and rises nearly vertically to around 2-3 km depth, and then changes direction to run horizontally eastwards for about 4.5 km to the point outside the ice margin where the eruption began on 21 March 2010. The article does not speculate about the possible reasons for the horizontal diversion: local faulting, or the hardness/composition of the rock beneath the ice-cap perhaps?
The most urgent question now is whether further fissures will open, and where. The current seat of the eruption is located between two icecaps; the emergence of a new fissure beneath the ice would renew the threat of a jökulhlaup or glacial meltwater flood.
For all our Eyjafjallajökull coverage: Eyjafjöll « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Ný sprunga opnaðist – myndir – RÚV, 31 March 2010
Iceland: new craters open up. ‘We saw the Earth open up’ – Iceland Review Online, 1 April 2010
Nýr gígur á hálsinum – Morgunblaðið, 1 April 2010
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Eyjafjöll – summary information for Eyjafjallajökull, which the GVP calls Eyjafjöll (1702-02=)
