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Volcano and Earthquake watch

Land of fire and ice ...

snow on lava makes for thick fog - when I checked the webcam it was a whiteout, apart from some rocks in the right foreground.
 
Although there is some steam - mostly from baking peat bog / small streams - the majority of the fumes you can see in the videos are likely to be sulphur dioxide.
Little or no ash at present, plenty of bombs / splatter instead.
 
That's a spectacular collapse.

Steep sided splatter cone, with an increasing weight of lava bubbling inside ...
Fairly predictable that was going to happen.

Very fluid lava flowed down afterwards, I note.
 
Around 14:37 (our time) a further section of the largest cone collapsed, on the side furthest away from the webcam much of the rim just disappeared.
[I had to re-run the feed to time it]
 
Looks a bit like the "valley of 10,000 smokes at the moment ...
as there is plenty of "fumarole" activity from the cooling lava flows.

The main and flank vents are chuntering away, the activity has picked up again, after a period of lesser fire-fountaining. At one point, the main vent was said to be 120 - 160 ft high. The point of lava discharge has moved several times, depending on where the rim collapsed.
The pair of vents on the left flank were shooting at an angle most of today.

Note;
The volcano itself is Geldingadalur, the camera is facing SSE on a hill called Fagradalsfjall, about 1km from the main vent.
 
There's a new webstream from the opposite side of the valley, This volcano is like being pleasantly mashed in front of a campfire. Wish I could be there





That compliments the original. I tend to use the RUV one, it doesn't include the comments of the idiotic,





Another nice perspective are the timelapse footages. This guy has a nice series of 'em,


 
It's been great watching the growth of the second vent. Geldingadalir* got some real character now. I'm informed the lava flow has remained a steady 5-6 cubic metres per second the last 4 days, which might account for the nonchalance of the locals.

An Icelandic vlogger I've been following for a month or so (Since the earthquakes focused) took his dog there today. Dog gave no fucks.




*Means 'The valley of castrations'. An Icelandic farmer gelded his sheep there, apparently. Most Icelanders are unhappy with this name and are also aware that Eyjafjallajokull, (2010) was a gobfull for non speakers.
 
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I was sure I had seen some figures for the volumes of lava from Geldingadalir.
So I had a search ...
on the morning of the 25th (published at 1347) ----
1.8 million cubic meters of lava had been produced, at an average rate of 6 cubic meters per second.
estimated max depth 22m and average depth 9.5m
 
What I find amazing is that we can't even predict flood plains in the UK and Iceland scientists are working out how many days before changes happen.

Different countries of course but you know
 
Another study ...

Iceland volcanic eruption could go on and on | RÚV (ruv.is)

summary - source of the magma is somewhat deeper than normal, there is an expectation that the eruption could last much longer than a couple of weeks and the lava could spill over into the next valley on Easter Monday (rather precise that).

[I have always found volcanoes quite fascinating, and having access to a webcam is a wonderful development - especially useful just now]
 
What I find amazing is that we can't even predict flood plains in the UK and Iceland scientists are working out how many days before changes happen.

Different countries of course but you know
We know where the flood plains are though - did you mean predicting floods?
 
Having run the feed back to check : it looks like part of the almost vertical section of the splatter cone gave way, again.

Yeah I'm not sure though. What I mean by that is that when I was watching it, about midday, the clock on the video said 7 something. I even had to google time now in Iceland because I knew that couldn't be right*. The clock now says the right time.

Activity looks a lot less right this moment than when I was watching then.

Edit - ok, not that much less activity.

* I could have misread the time on my small screen. Really don't know.
 
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I have no science. So can someone explain what is happening to the orange lava flow on the left when it hits 'ground level'? Why isn't it still orange, as for example in the second 'live from' photo shown by farmerbarleymow in this post?
{hopefully not being boring]

Simple explanation of the colour change is that the lava is cooling from near yellow heat when first erupted to orange and then red ... and eventually, the black surface is still very hot, but is more or less solid.

The very liquid & fast moving lava produces a ropey surface (pahhoehoe) in lots of over-lapping thin layers but when it is more viscous it a blocky surface (ah-ah) - some of the lumpy appearance is the earliest lava erupted was blocky when it cooled. The low viscosity of this lava makes puddling - when a fresh supply discharges into a volume, but under a crusted surface, this means convection from the hotter, new lava will break the surface.
Lava puddles quick to form | RÚV (ruv.is) [a miniature lava lake]

The vents are surrounded by splatter cones - the ejected lava is still almost liquid when it splashes back down and this sticks together.
There is some film of the first large cone, which shows this. The result is the almost vertical wall around the vent, which is what has partially collapsed a few times. The more energetic blobs go further and contribute to the cone shape. If one of these blobs is small enough and thrown sufficiently high / far then the surface can "set" during flight - these are "bombs" and they usually break apart on landing, unless the crust is quite thick. [best seen in low light conditions of early evening]

Both the main vents are discharging lava flows from fissures in flanks of their cones. The left hand one has been fairly fixed in location and output, in contrast the right hand vent discharge has relocated several times and is less productive.

[sorry, I'm a bit of a volcano nerd at times ...]
 
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