The smoke from the eruption can be seen from many places in south Iceland, Iceland’s television channel RUV said in a report.
Iceland’s Meteorological Office also confirmed that an eruption had begun in Grimsvotn.
“All indications are that an eruption will start in this area,” Icelandic geologist Hjorleifur Sveinbjornsson was quoted as saying earlier on Saturday by the local media.
But scientists in Iceland believed that the new eruption in Grimsvotn could be small and would not lead to a repeat of the air travel chaos in Europe one year ago, which was caused by ashes from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano’s eruption.
Located in the middle of the Vatnajokull glacier, Grimsvotn is the most active volcano in Iceland, with major eruptions recorded in 1922, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1945, 1954, 1983, 1998 and 2004. Most of the eruptions lasted one to three weeks.
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From Iceland’s Meteorological Office
Eruption has started in Grímsvötn
An eruption began at Grímsvötn volcano at approximately 17:30 UTC, May 21st 2011.
Eruptions in Grímsvötn start as subglacial eruptions, which quickly break the ice cover. At 21:00 UTC, the eruption plume had risen to an altitude of over 65,000 ft (~20 km). Initially, the plume is expected to drift to the east and subsequently to the north. Thus, the ash is not expected to impact aviation in Europe, at least not during the first 24 hours.
The figure on the right (above) shows an image of the eruption cloud at 22:00 UTC. The image is from the Icelandic Met Office weather radar located at Keflavik International Airport, at 220 km distance from the volcano. The cloud extends above a large part of Vatnajökull ice cap. The line marks the approximate location of Grímsvötn volcano.
The last eruption in Grímsvötn occurred in November 2004. Grímsvötn is Iceland’s most frequently erupting volcano.
The figure below shows tremor activity in Grímsvötn associated with the eruption. Note that seismic activity increases after 17:30 UTC.
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Anecdotal evidence is that this eruption is larger than the 2004 eruption. Current estimates are for the ash cloud to be 18km to 20km in altitude. At the latitude of Iceland, that is a stratospheric injection of material.
Harmonic tremor graph closest to the eruption is here:
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/grf.gif
Hey! No Fair! I’m supposed to fly from Frankfurt to Calgary today….usually right over Reykjavick! Poo!
Follow progress at http://bigthink.com/ideas/38530
The webcams are overloaded, so it will be a lucky person who gets a connection. The Icelandic Met Office offer maps showing the earthquakes associated with the eruption, which are NOT shown by the Seismic map http://www.iris.edu/seismon/bigmap/index.phtml nor the USGS. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html
On the spot.
http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/
It’s the Rapture!! God’s just starting small. Believe me, this is the end!
At least this is a volcano we can pronounce.
If this thing doesn’t settle fairly quickly and keeps honking at those altitudes then the high end September NSIDC Arctic minimum ice extent predictions are looking more on target.
“not likely”? wait until the met office guys come back from the weekend
Not fair, I just back from two weeks of taking photos got some good ones, but those shots would have looked a lot better.
Maybe next year when I return.
If this thing doesn’t settle fairly quickly and keeps honking at those altitudes then the high end September NSIDC Arctic minimum ice extent predictions are looking more on target.
Adam says: May 21, 2011 at 11:09 pm
It’s the Rapture!! God’s just starting small. Believe me, this is the end!
Mike McMillan says: May 21, 2011 at 11:38 pm
At least this is a volcano we can pronounce.
where else would I get such wonderful comment first thing in the morning.
At least this time authorities are actually going to the site to assess actual dust/ash levels etc rather than relying on a computer model/prediction.
“Air traffic has been banned in a radius of ~200 km / 120 miles around the volcano (Icelandic) and any air traffic over Iceland will be routed south tonight. The eruption seems to be larger (Icelandic) than in 2004 as well”
http://bigthink.com/ideas/38526
Well I woke this morning and everything looks as normal. So another wrong prophesy.
Volcanoes do their own thing so this eruption may be completely different to previous ones from this volcano. Different magma composition, different ice cover, wind changes, are but three variables that will change the air traffic problems.
Let us hope for the best, plan for the worst.
Scottish Sceptic says:
May 22, 2011 at 1:20 am
where else would I get such wonderful comment first thing in the morning.
Try Yahoo news…
A really beautiful photo. The Icelandic people are lucky that they get to see a small eruption like this happening in their backyard.
New pictures:
http://klaengur.imgur.com/grmsvtn
Flights to and from Iceland have been cancelled:
Keflavik International Airport:
http://www.textavarp.is/420/
http://www.textavarp.is/421/
I’ll respect you in the morning if you can explain, in unequivocal terms, the mechanism of the cloud formation that is annular to the volcanic plume.
“Iceland volcano eruption not likely to disrupt air travel”
With an ash plume risen to an altitude of 20 km and the latest assessment that this is the biggest eruption of the past 100 years I think it is “very likely” that air travel is going to be disrupted.
Hopefully this eruption dies down soon.
From Erik Klemetti’s Blog on bigthink Subglacial eruption starting at Iceland’s Grímsvötn
See the plume develop over Iceland on this eumetsat satellite compilation from the Norwegian Met Institute. Plume starts at 21:00 Saturday (Lørdag)
H/T Thor Norway
At least in S. England we had about a month or excellent weather, comparable to summer months. From now tanks to Grim-whatever it may be all downhill. Only yesterday some newspapers were predicting hottest summer ever, wouldn’t mind that, but hopefully not a ‘year without summer’.
Exept Iceland’s air travel.
Estimates are that the eruption is 10x larger than the 2004 event, and the biggest at this volcano in 100 year. Icelandic airspace is closed. Ash cloud went to 20km or over 60000 feet. I guess the real impact will depend on how long it goes on for and the wind direction though.
this site has a lot of information about Icelandic volcanoes and is worth a view
http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=946
Normally, in Western Europe, the weather travels from SW to NE. Last spring (I know I was there) there was a blocking high in the Atlantic bringing the dust cloud NW to SE. That pattern was what stuffed air travel. I spent April 2010 outside, building a shed in my brother’s garden. I’m 59 years old, and that’s the first time I’ve picked up sunburn in April. I doubt those conditions will hold this year.