New Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland? August 18th

18 Aug 2014

New Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland? August 18th

News is coming out of Iceland that volcanic eruptions may be on their way. Iceland is a great country if a little over-familiar with the giant hot dog and hamburger. Not the kind of stuff that Iceland Tourism wants to hear about, just when things are getting better, the Icelandic Krona is weaker ( making a cup of coffee less than 5£). The aviation industry have been warned of a “code yellow”. The worry being that an eruption may lead to an ash cloud.

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.Bárðarbunga is Iceland’s second highest mountain at 2,000 meters (6,562 feet). The largest earthquake , 3.8 in magnitude, occurred near Kistufell last night and apparently continues. In fact near constant earthquakes have been occurring in the volcano for 3 days , 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. There is no indication that magma has yet reached the surface.

The Icelandic meteorlogical office issue a map at

http://en.vedur.is/weather/aviation/volcanic-hazards/

On a scale of 1-5 their advice is colour coded and yellow equals a 3/5 risk that background activity is greater than normal but nothing is yet imminent. Keep watching this space.