Tephra in the making
As some (many) of you probably know, I study something called tephrochronology, which involves dating things via layers of volcanic ash (tiny glass shards known as tephra). My research focuses almost entirely on Icelandic volcanoes erupting in the last 2000 years, so when a new one starts erupting, that's pretty exciting!
Anyway I thought it might be cool to round up some good links of this volcano.
http://www.ruv.is//frett/oroi-ad-aukast-jafnt-og-thett There's a good one with shots of the actual cone erupting and lots of smoke -- no fire. The headline, with my very poor translation skills, means that the eruption is increasing gradually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcUa_g_XVrQ Here's a pretty sweet video showing that it is an eruption along a rift. The big fear right now is that the rift will expand to be more underneath the glacier and trigger a jokulhlaup [literally, glacier run], which would be a rapid melting and flood of glacial water.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24454986@N08/4454321388/ Here's some photos showing the formation of new cones, tephra exploding out of the volcano, etc. Also in the foreground of the first photo there you can clearly see tephra lying on the glacier, which will someday be studied by a craft tephrochronologist/igneous petrologist.
Iceland is well-equipped to handle volcanic eruptions and I would be shocked if anyone loses their life to this, though some property, including parts of the ring road, maybe destroyed if a jokulhlaup happens.
Anyway I thought it might be cool to round up some good links of this volcano.
http://www.ruv.is//frett/oroi-ad-aukast-jafnt-og-thett There's a good one with shots of the actual cone erupting and lots of smoke -- no fire. The headline, with my very poor translation skills, means that the eruption is increasing gradually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcUa_g_XVrQ Here's a pretty sweet video showing that it is an eruption along a rift. The big fear right now is that the rift will expand to be more underneath the glacier and trigger a jokulhlaup [literally, glacier run], which would be a rapid melting and flood of glacial water.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24454986@N08/4454321388/ Here's some photos showing the formation of new cones, tephra exploding out of the volcano, etc. Also in the foreground of the first photo there you can clearly see tephra lying on the glacier, which will someday be studied by a craft tephrochronologist/igneous petrologist.
Iceland is well-equipped to handle volcanic eruptions and I would be shocked if anyone loses their life to this, though some property, including parts of the ring road, maybe destroyed if a jokulhlaup happens.