Ahrcanum

Iceland’s volcano, NO END IN SIGHT!

The Northern Lights over Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption.   Photo by Kristinn R Kristinsson.  So much beauty in the devastation.

Ashes, Ashes, They all fall down

Anticipation of the volcanic activity slowing down is wishful thinking as planes remain grounded over much of Europe because of a supposed invisible ash plume.

The earth in Iceland is hardly settled with no less than 57 earthquakes occurring in the last 48 hours. From http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=table

Earthquake count:

• Magnitude less than 1:  16
• Magnitude 1 to 2:  36
• Magnitude 2 to 3:  4
• Magnitude more than 3:  1
• Total: 57

For whatever reason the USGS (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php)  is is showing no seismic activity from Iceland.  Iceland’s Meteorological Office shows numerous quakes including today’s, April 17, 2010 seismicity-  

An ash cloud above the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. April 16, 2010.

Staff from the Icelandic Meteorological Office flew with the Icelandic Coast Guard to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption site on the afternoon of April 16th 2010.  At 4 pm the volcanic ash cloud was clearly visible above the cloud deck, rising at times to at least 30,000 feet. Steady winds from the east-north-east moved the cloud away from the volcano.  The cloud height was variable from 25 to 30,000 feet and its colour varied from dark to white, depending on how much ash was in the cloud.

From the live feed of photos from a camera located in Þórólfsfell, which has a view over the river Markarfljót and the glacier Eyjafjallajökull where the eruption is, you can see large plumes continuing to erupt.

“The activity has been quite vigorous overnight, causing the eruption column to grow,” Icelandic geologist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson told The Associated Press on Saturday. “It’s the magma mixing with the water that creates the explosivity. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.” via http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_iceland_volcano

Thousands of commercial flight have been grounded just like on 911, all air-traffic in Northern Europe is down.  The military while diverting injured soldiers away from Germany, are still playing war games.  A large fleet of warships, submarines, frigates and aircraft from 10 NATO countries are taking  part in the ‘Brilliant Mariner’ maritime exercise in the Baltic Sea.  https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/911-false-flag-volcanic-ash-grounds-flights-military-drills-continue/

What about global warming?   Remember, all the volcanoes in the world release 130 times less CO₂ than the human race does each year, so even big eruptions add relatively little to the atmosphere. via  http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/04/eyjafjallajokull_eruption_cont.php

Temperatures in Europe could rise as a result of planes being grounded across the continent, according to research. A study conducted after commercial flights were grounded for three days following the September 11 terror attacks found the average daily temperature range in the U.S. rose markedly – exceeding the three-day periods before and after by 1.8c.  Scientists claimed this showed that clouds formed by the water vapour in the exhaust from jet planes have a small but significant effect on daily temperatures.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266739/Grounding-planes-Europe-lead-rise-temperatures.html#ixzz0lN9FOVoW

What about global cooling?  With an invisible ash cloud, one would suppose that solar radiation would permeate the atmosphere in it’s usual manner.

Somewhat undecided via http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100035032/official-icelandic-volcano-with-unpronounceable-name-was-caused-by-man-made-global-warming/

Scientific American – via Reuters –OSLO (Reuters) – A thaw of Iceland’s ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.

Er well, sort of. In the next paragraph they’re forced to concede that the eruption below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier had nothing to do with global warming.

They said there was no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that has paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology.

But they’re not about to let a good story go that easily:

“Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades,” said Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland.

“Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems,” he told Reuters. The end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago coincided with a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland, apparently because huge ice caps thinned and the land rose.

 I can’t get that Jimmy Buffet Song out of my head….

“I don’t know, I don’t know,
I don’t know where I’m a-gonna go when the volcano blow…”

Open wide, say ahhh and check out more posts from Ahrcanum!