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Possible eruption in Icelandic volcano could stop air traffic in Europe

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Strax

Member
A level of uncertainty has been declared in Bárðarbunga volcano, located in the northwestern Vatnajökull glacier, Southeast Iceland, due to an increase in seismic activity in the volcano. The largest earthquake of the swarm, 3.8 in magnitude, occurred near Kistufell last night. It could be felt as far as Akureyri in Northeast Iceland, visir.is reports. The seismic activity continues.

As a precautionary measure, a Code Yellow has been declared in Bárðarbunga. Color codes, which are in accordance with recommended International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) procedures, are intended to inform the aviation sector about a volcano’s status.

Due to the possibility of a flood in the area, the police in Húsavík have decided to close the Gæsavatnaleið road and other highland roads east of Skjálfandafljót to Askja, as well as part of the road to Herðubreiðarlindir.

Near continuous earthquakes have been occurring in the volcano since early Saturday morning, as stated on the website of the Iceland Met Office. More than 1,000 earthquakes were recorded in Vatnajökull over the weekend, the majority of which were between 1.0 and 2.0 in magnitude. Several earthquakes measured over 3.0 in magnitude, ruv.is reports.

There is no indication that magma has yet reached the surface.

The statement continues:

“Over the last seven years seismic activity has been gradually increasing in Bárðarbunga and the fissure swarm north of the volcano. This activity dropped down at the Grímsvötn eruption in May 2011, but soon after, the activity started to gradually increase again and has now reached similar level of activity to that just before the Grímsvötn eruption. Earlier this year, in the middle of May 2014, there was a small swarm of over 200 events and now the present swarm has already generated at least 300 earthquakes.

“Since early June 2014, displacements at GPS stations around Vatnajökull (Hamarinn, Grímsfjall, Vonarskarð and Dyngjuháls) show an increased upward movement and away from Bárðarbunga. Together, these two systems indicate magma movements in Bárðarbunga. Due to increased seismicity IMO has decided to turn volcano Bárðarbunga status to yellow. In case of a sub-aerial eruption, an ash plume of potential concerns for aviation will be generated.”

The updated map is available at the link: http://en.vedur.is/weather/aviation/volcanic-hazards/
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Link

Also this morning it's been updated to CODE ORANGE (Volcano shows heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption)
 
V

Vidal

Member
Vatnajökull
Bárðarbunga
Gæsavatnaleið
Dyngjuháls
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League-of-Legends.gif
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
Nebula said:
I HATE ICELAAAAAND!
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It's literally one of the coolest places on earth, and the people are cool as fuck too. They are sort of mellow, sort of somber but just cool. Watched a Sigur Ros video lately? all of them are like that. They are like Norweigians but even more cool. They have the zany equality and social justice of Sweden but less pretentious.


And then they are crazy too. Like real crazy. Strong fighters, you def feel the viking genes. To me Iceland is a good example of the benefits of just being a population of 400-500,000 people. With that amount of people you can actually keep corruption from going too crazy. To my knowledge, they are like the only country that managed to take all their bankers to jail post-recession, while every other country have them just running free.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Vigilant Walrus said:
It's literally one of the coolest places on earth, and the people are cool as fuck too. They are sort of mellow, sort of somber but just cool. Watched a Sigur Ros video lately? all of them are like that. They are like Norweigians but even more cool. They have the zany equality and social justice of Sweden but less pretentious.


And then they are crazy too. Like real crazy. Strong fighters, you def feel the viking genes. To me Iceland is a good example of the benefits of just being a population of 400-500,000 people. With that amount of people you can actually keep corruption from going too crazy. To my knowledge, they are like the only country that managed to take all their bankers to jail post-recession, while every other country have them just running free.
Click to expand...


Yep. Just got back. Amazing place, wonderful people. Watching late night club activity in Reykjavik IN BROAD DAYLIGHT is surreal.
 
T

theepicoftyler

Member
Geology facts.

Iceland is unique in that it has two possible drivers of its volcanism. Firstly, it sits upon the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (the place where the North American and Eurasian plates are diverging, allowing magma to rise to the surface), however, there may be a mantle plume (Hawaii's volcanism is driven by a mantle plume) beneath Iceland. Go read about geology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_plume

Controversies in science!
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Vigilant Walrus said:
It's literally one of the coolest places on earth, and the people are cool as fuck too. They are sort of mellow, sort of somber but just cool. Watched a Sigur Ros video lately? all of them are like that. They are like Norweigians but even more cool. They have the zany equality and social justice of Sweden but less pretentious.


And then they are crazy too. Like real crazy. Strong fighters, you def feel the viking genes. To me Iceland is a good example of the benefits of just being a population of 400-500,000 people. With that amount of people you can actually keep corruption from going too crazy. To my knowledge, they are like the only country that managed to take all their bankers to jail post-recession, while every other country have them just running free.
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It stinks though.
 
M

Musician

Member
I'm torn on this issue. On one hand, I'm going to Germany tomorrow and not being able to go would suck because it's been part of my plans for months.

On the other hand, I'm don't really want to go.
 
I

iamaustrian

Member
The last time that icleandish öäöadjeihfdÜÜhahüohdowi volcano errupted we had some AWESOME sunsets. Like the entire sky was bleeding.

screw the planes and blow up
 
S

Strax

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
It's literally one of the coolest places on earth, and the people are cool as fuck too. They are sort of mellow, sort of somber but just cool. Watched a Sigur Ros video lately? all of them are like that. They are like Norweigians but even more cool. They have the zany equality and social justice of Sweden but less pretentious.


And then they are crazy too. Like real crazy. Strong fighters, you def feel the viking genes. To me Iceland is a good example of the benefits of just being a population of 400-500,000 people.
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We also have great hotdogs
 
D

diggmcbadass

Member
Iceland is pretty awesome. As someone from western Norway, I can't help feeling envious of their language. The Danes fucked up ours. If they had a stronger economy, I would seriously consider moving there, but these days the reverse is a lot more popular.
 
G

grumble

Member
Strax said:
We also have great hotdogs
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Honestly the hot dogs were not very good. I went to a couple of places and they were consistently sub par. On the other hand the Reykjavik restaurant called grillmarketen (sp?) was one of the best food experiences I've ever had. Loved the country, would go back for sure.
 
Z

zonezeus

Member
Last time it happened I had some free (paid) vacations. Good times, make it happen again Iceland.

I work at the airport, we were on call.
 
I

Irminsul

Member
I don't want to go anywhere by plane in the near future, so go for it, says my selfish me. That also tends to produce great sunsets over mainland Europe.

Also, "Bárðarbunga" should be a bit easier to pronounce than "Eyjafjallajökull", at least if you know what you're doing ;)
 
S

SiegfriedFM

Member
I'm doing a lot of (IMO) unnecessary air travel in my work currently, so I wouldn't really mind. Might force people to look into video chat more.

Shutting down air travel might also unknowingly stop some ebola vector from potentially wiping out Europe, so in that case thank you Iceland.
 
S

Strax

Member
Since the onset of the earthquake swarm at Bárðarbunga at around 3 am on Saturday morning around 2.800 earthquakes have been detected with the earthquake monitoring network of the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO). Of these around 950 have occured since midnight today. Several of these events were larger than magnitude 3.

The swarm initially started in the Bardarbunga caldera and has been migrating in two clusters towards the north and the east of the volcano. On Sunday, August 17th,, these two clusters were active east and north of Bardarbunga. The activity in both clusters was migrating northeastwards. While strongest events were located in the northern cluster, the highest number of events were detected in the eastern cluster.

The strongest event since the onset of the swarm was detected on Monday morning 02:37 in the northern cluster. Detailed analysis revealed that its magnitude was 4.5 and it was felt in Akureyri and Lon.

Since this morning, activity has significantly decreased in the northern cluster. The eastern cluster remains active until now. Two stronger pulses of activity have occurred between 10:45 and 12:00 as well as 16:50 and 17:30 today.

Within the first pulse around noon, the cluster was again migrating northeastwards, most events are now located between Bardarbunga and Kverkfjoll. As reported earlier, GPS ground deformation data has evidenced that the earthquake swarm is caused by magma intrusion.

Throughout the whole sequence until now (8pm August 18th) the majority of events was at 5-10 kilometer depth. No signs of migration towards the surface or any other signs of imminent or ongoing volcanic activity have been detected so far. IMO is monitoring the area around the clock very closely and will update in case of any changes.
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LINK
 
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