Bardarbunga caldera: Massive Icelandic lava field could cover Manhattan

A volcano in Iceland has produced a river of molten rock that could cover the entire island of Manhattan in the United States.

Holuhraun has been erupting for three months and is responsible for the largest lava field in the country for more than 200 years.



The ongoing volcanic eruption in Holuhraun has already become the largest lava eruption in Iceland since the 19th century, according to volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson.

More lava has been emitted than in the largest lava eruption of the 20th century, Krafla in 1984.

Lava is made up of crystals, volcanic glass, and bubbles (volcanic gases). As magma gets closer to the surface and cools, it begins to crystallize minerals like olivine and form bubbles of volcanic gases.

When lava erupts it is made up of a slush of crystals, liquid, and bubbles. The liquid "freezes" to form volcanic glass. 

On 10th September 2014 the lava field was more than 70 square kilometers! 

Iceland raises its volcano aviation warning alert to RED

Iceland's authorities have raised the aviation warning code for a region close to the subglacial Bardarbunga volcano after a small fissure eruption in the area.

No volcanic ash has been detected, however, and the Civil Protection Department said all Icelandic airports remained open.

The country's meteorological agency said scientists were monitoring the eruption in the Holuhraun lava field, about three miles north of the Dyngjujoekull glacier.

"Visual observation confirms it is calm, but continuous," the weather agency said on its website.

This morning's eruption at about 0600 BST followed a smaller one in the same site on Friday that also prompted authorities to briefly raise the aviation warning code to restrict flights in the area.

Thousands of small earthquakes have rocked the region in recent days, leading to concerns that the main volcano may erupt.

The red warning code, the highest in the country's alert system - meant that no flights are allowed in an airspace area of about 40 square nautical miles north of the fissure eruption area, up to 6,000 feet (1.1 miles) from the ground.

Aviation officials said the restrictions do not affect commercial flights, which fly much higher than that.

Authorities said lava fountains of about 165ft (50m) high erupted from the fissure, estimated to be almost a mile long.

The fissure eruption appeared about 28 miles from the main Bardarbunga volcano, which lies under the vast Vatnajokull glacier that dominates the eastern corner of Iceland.

Though remote and sparsely populated, the area is popular with hikers in the summer. Officials earlier evacuated all tourists in the region after intense seismic activity there.

Although today's fissure eruption was more powerful than the one on Friday, experts say the situation is contained and is unlikely to result in the same level of aviation chaos as 2010.

Iceland Rocked by Thousands of intense earthquakes

This is a Saturday May 8 2010 file image taken from video of a column of ash rising from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano. 

It was reported Tueday Aug. 19, 2014 that thousands of small intense earthquakes are rocking Iceland amid concerns that one of the country's volcanoes may be close to erupting. 

Iceland has raised its aviation alert level for the risk of a possible volcanic eruption to orange, the second-most severe level. 

The alert is worrisome because of the chaos that followed the April 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokul, when more than 100,000 flights were cancelled because volcanic ash floating in the atmosphere is considered an aviation safety hazard. 

Credit: AP Photo/ APTN

Thousands of small intense earthquakes are rocking Iceland amid concerns that one of the country's volcanoes may be close to erupting.

Iceland has raised its aviation alert level for the risk of a possible volcanic eruption to orange—the second-most severe level.

The alert is worrisome because of the chaos that followed the April 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokul, when more than 100,000 flights were cancelled because volcanic ash floating in the atmosphere is considered an aviation safety hazard.

Some 3,000 earthquakes have taken place since Saturday in Bárðarbunga (pronounced [b'aurðarbuŋka]), a subglacial stratovolcano located under Iceland's largest glacier.

Iceland's Meteorological Office said that no earthquakes above magnitude 3 have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Seismologists said Tuesday magma is moving, but it is traveling horizontally.

Aerial Images of Iceland's glacial rivers - Andre Ermolaev

Aerial images, taken by Andre Ermolaev from a Cessna aircraft, show the elegance of Iceland’s volcanic rivers as they flow through ash and glacial ice.

Ermoleav says, "what has become a real discovery for me is the bird’s eye view of the rivers flowing along the black volcanic sand.

It is an inexpressible combination of colors, lines, and patterns."

Iceland, an island nation comparable in size to Ohio, is home to hundreds of glaciers and volcanoes and has been responsible for 30 percent of Earth's lava flow in the last 500 years.

These contrasting natural wonders help create the landscapes depicted in Ermoleav's images.

Dr. Nicolas Warner explained that in Iceland, it is common for glacial melt water to form braided streams on outwash plains, called sandurs.

These sandurs, composed of a variety of dark basaltic volcanic material, are a dynamic contrast to the glacial rivers in Ermoleav's images.

Mountain Water Pictures: Iceland from the Air

"Iceland is a wonderful country; I would even say that it is a true paradise for all the photo shooting-lovers. But what has become a real discovery for me is the bird’s eye view of the rivers flowing along the black volcanic sand. It is an inexpressible combination of colors, lines, and patterns. The photo represents the mouth of the river falling into the ocean."

"A little bit upstream there is a yellow-coloured brook flowing into the river, but yellow currents fail to mix with the main water flow. One can estimate the scale judging by the car tracks that are clearly seen on the black sand. This is just a river, just a volcano, just our planet."

Andre Ermolaev.

Some of the remarkable pictures from Andre Ermolaev’s website

Volcano Hekla erupts with the Aurora overhead: Iceland

Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt. In Iceland in 1991, the volcano Hekla erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead. Hekla, one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, has erupted at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction.

The last eruption occurred only twelve years ago but caused only minor damage. The green auroral band occurred fortuitously about 100 kilometers above the erupting lava. Is Earth the Solar System's only planet with both auroras and volcanos?

NASA Image: Aurora Borealis over Norðurljós March 2012

An aurora on March 8, 2012 shimmering over snow-covered mountains in Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland. 

Image courtesy of Jónína Óskarsdóttir.

You can find more about this image and the solar storm that sparked this display of the Northern Lights at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News030712-X5-4....

Aurora Borealis over Iceland Ice Floes

The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights are photographed over ice floes in Iceland by amateur photographer Martin Zalba

Picture: Martin Zalba / Barcroft Media

Blue Hue in Geyser Water: Haukadalur valley, Iceland

A mysterious blue colour is clearly captured in the split second before a geyser violently erupts.

The hue was captured on camera as a torrent of scalding water exploded from within the crater.

Photographer Tatyana Kildisheva was left baffled when she checked her images and discovered the sight.

She thinks it is either produced by chemicals in the exploding water or a light effect caused by the sun. Tatyana took the image in the Haukadalur valley, Iceland.

She said: "I wanted to capture the moment right before the geyser erupts, when a bubble is growing and is at its biggest size. It took me a while to catch this particular image, because this moment lasts for a fraction of a second.

I don't know what causes the blue colour. It might be chemicals - not far from this geyser is a blue water pool."

Picture: Tatyana Kildisheva/Solent News

Volcanic Aurora by Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson (Iceland)

Volcanic Aurora by Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson (Iceland).

A shimmering aurora, resulting from magnetic activity on the Sun, provides a spectacular background to a dramatic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

A dark cloud of ash at ground level can be seen to the left in this photograph, while there is bright red lava at the mouth of the volcano.

The eruption caused substantial disruption to international travel in the spring of 2010.

Picture: Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson

ESA Observing the Earth - Earth from Space: A smoke-free Iceland - images

ESA - Observing the Earth - Earth from Space: A smoke-free Iceland - images

This image, acquired by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on 24 May 2010, features a smoke-free Iceland.
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which had a series of eruptions in April and May, is visible in the dark area on the southern coast. The Vatnajokull glacier (visible in white northeast of Eyjafjallajokull) is the largest in Iceland and in Europe. The white circular patch in the centre of the country is Hofsjokull, the country’s third largest glacier and its largest active volcano. The elongated white area west of Hofsjokull is Langjokull, Iceland’s second largest glacier.

ESA EUMETSAT Image: Iceland Volcanic Ash

The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland closed down airports in Spain, the Canary Islands and parts of Morocco, and looks set to spread further to southwestern France

However, an Icelandic expert says the volcano has been stable in recent days, and the ash disrupting flights in Europe was likely emitted last week and could continue causing chaos for a while to come.

"The problem with the disruption in the flights is that the ash we see over Europe, is not from today or yesterday. It is much older," said Bjoern Oddsson of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Iceland University.

"Ash can travel around in the atmosphere due to winds, and we really don't know when it will settle down. So even if the volcano stops, we can look at this problem for a couple of weeks after," he said

Picture: AFP / EUMETSAT

Iceland Eyjafjallajokull Volcano: Images of a river of ash among the clouds

After more than a week of relatively subdued activity in late April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull Volcano began a fresh round of explosive ash eruptions in the first week of May.

Picture available from ESA Earth Observatory site

On the morning of May 6, 2010, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of a thick plume of ash blowing east and then south from the volcano.

Click Here for Live Webcam Views

Clouds bracket the edges of the scene, but the dark blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean show in the middle, and above them, a rippling, brownish-yellow river of ash.

MORE: ESA plans new instruments to monitor volcanic ash clouds on future Earth Observation spacecraft.

WEBCAM View: Eyjafjallajokull volcano, including Infrared views

Iceland Volcano eruption of Ejyafjallajökull pre-requisite for massive Katla eruption

Live Webcam view Ejyafjallajökull

The eruption of Ejyafjallajökull, it is feared, may continue for weeks, months or even longer, disrupting air traffic whenever the wind blows its ash into flight paths: last time it blew up, in 1821, it went on for more than a year.

The real fear is that it may well be followed by another massive volcano, Katla, some five times bigger, which would spew out far more of the stuff and could therefore cause far greater chaos.

Every time Ejyafjallajökull has blown its top since the Vikings first arrived on the island in the ninth century, Katla has swiftly followed.

Vulcanologists say these could just be the opening volleys of a decades-long barrage, as climate change takes hold. “Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems”, Dr Freysteinn Sigmundsson, of the Nordic Volcanological Centre at the University of Iceland, told Reuters. “Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades.”

The volcano in Eyjafjallajokul, Iceland

Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul, Iceland.

Friction between the ash particles in the volcanic cloud creates enormous amounts of electricity that sparks and discharges around the crater.

The same electrical build-up is a danger to aircraft flying through volcanic ash and can cause the aircraft fuselage to glow. This effect is similar to St Elmo's fire.

Danger to Aircraft Engines
The other danger to aircraft engines is the adverse effect that volcanic ash has inside the modern aero engine, primarily in jet engines. The high temperatures and compression that is essential for propulsion in jet engines, melts the silica in the ash and converts into a sticky goo that clogs essential fuel jets, inlets and outlets.

The struggling engines can generate excess amounts of unburnt fuel, which escapes and ignites as it leaves the engine. This gives the impression of an engine fire but it is really a fire in the exhaust jet.

The next stage occurs when the jet engine becomes so clogged with sticky volcanic ash that it 'flares out' or extinguishes and shuts down. This can happen to all onboard aircraft engines within a very short space of time.

Re-starting a Jet Engine
Re-starting a jet engine in mid-flight is a standard procedure for aircraft pilots but when all your engines are out, it becomes much more stressful. Especially, if the engines are so clogged with sticky goo that the fuel cannot get through to the combustion chambers.

The problem with this scenario is that the sticky ash goo that clogged and stalled the engines is still present and it will continue to prevent the engine from re-igniting.

BA Flight
In the, now infamous, BA flight in which this scenario happened, the passengers and crew were fortunately saved by a number of lucky coincidences.

Once all the engines 'flared out', the outside temperature at high altitude quickly cooled the inside structure and the sticky goo quickly became brittle, causing pieces of it to break off, leaving a sufficient number of fuel jets clear to re-start the engines.

Once the aircraft was clear of the volcanic ash cloud and with the engines restarted, they were able to make a safe landing.

Icelandic Volcano

Aurora Bolearis crosses the skies above the Icelandic volcano

Envisat Images Ash Belching From Eyjafjallajoekull

Envisat Images Ash Belching From Eyjafjallajoekull

In this image taken just under two hours ago (14:45 CET) by ESA's Envisat satellite, a heavy plume of ash from the Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano is seen travelling in a roughly southeasterly direction.

The volcano has been emitting steam and ash since its recent eruptions began on 20 March, and as observable, the emissions continue. The plume, visible in brownish-grey, is approximately 400 km long.

Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer instrument (MERIS) acquired this image on 19 April, while working in Full Resolution Mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.

Video of Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland Volcano Erupting

NASA Earth Observatory image: Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull Volcano burst into life for the first time in 190 years on March 20, 2010.

A 500-meter- (2,000-foot) long fissure opened in the Fimmvörduháls pass to the west of the ice-covered summit of Eyjafjallajökull.

Lava fountains erupted fluid magma, which quickly built several hills of bubble-filled lava rocks (scoria) along the vent. A lava flow spread northeast, spilling into Hrunagil Gully.

This natural-colour satellite image shows lava fountains, lava flows, a volcanic plume, and steam from vapourised snow. The image was acquired on March 24, 2010, by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

The lava fountains are orange-red, barely visible at the 10-meter (33-foot) resolution of the satellite.

The scoria cones surrounding the fissure are black, as is the lava flow extending to the northeast. White volcanic gases escape from the vent and erupting lava, while a steam plume rises where the hot lava meets snow. (The bright green colour along the edge of the lava flow is an artifact of the sensor.)



Click on the image above to see the full size version.

The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull was presaged by a series of earthquakes starting in early March. Over time, the earthquakes rose towards the surface, and land near the volcano rose at least 40 millimeters (2 inches)—both indications that magma was moving underneath the volcano. The eruption may continue for several more months.

Previous eruptions in the area have caused flooding due to the melting of glacial ice (a Jökulhlaup), but the current eruption is in an area covered by winter snow, not permanent ice.

Although some past eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull were followed by larger, explosive eruptions at nearby Katla Volcano, there is currently no sign of activity at Katla.

Image of Lava Spewing from Iceland's Hvolsvllur Volcanic vent

Lava spews out of a mountain in Hvolsvllur in the region of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland