Eruption on Iceland now

New camera. The valley is filling up rapidly. The vent itself is just getting bigger and bigger. Soon tghe lava will find a way out. The best scenario is that is goes south or east (less likely). It's pretty remarkable. The magma is pure unevolved magma directly from the mantle (about 12 miles deep) ... there is a blade of magma forming a dyke that is a metre or two wide, but several kilometers long and they reckon about 5 km deep ... this is being fed directly from the mantle via a conduit. Because of this, there is nothing, at this stage, to limit that flow of magma. ie. there is no magma chamber to empty. So this could go on for a long time, eventually forming a shield volcano with large basalt floods. Anyway, enjoy the mesmerising pictures. Thousands of people have made the long hike their to sit and watch overnight. It's like a festival.
 
There are now 4 eruptive fissures/cones with a growing lava field. The bathtub is almost full.

Anyway, there was discussion about explosive and ashy erutpions that can cause disruption to air traffic.
Here's a fantastic article about the current state of play with Grimsvotn, which is gearing up for another big bang. It explains the mechanics of iceland's volcanos really well.

www.severe-weather.eu

Grimsvotn volcano is on a yellow alert, with a nasty explosive attitude and a history of large ash clouds impacting the North Atlantic

A large explosive volcano is now under a yellow alert in Iceland, and it has the power to produce a large ash cloud towards Europe
www.severe-weather.eu www.severe-weather.eu
 
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