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Updated at 1.20pm
AUTHORITIES IN ICELAND have evacuated tourists and hikers from an area close to the Bardarbunga volcano due to seismic activity recorded at the site since Saturday.
Iceland’s Civil Protection Authority told public broadcaster RUV that it had finished the evacuation from around the Bardarbunga volcano but that further air patrols would be carried out to ensure no-one remained.
The area is uninhabited, with only trekking cabins and campsites used by tourists and hunters in the summer months.
“We of course don’t know about all hikers and such, but we are going to look over the area with the aid of the Coast Guard and after that we should be very certain that no-one is in the area,” Vidir Reynisson at the Civil Protection Authority (CPA) told RUV.
The authority said the volcano was stable today, but still in danger of erupting.
Up to 300 people are believed to have been evacuated from the area around the volcano, and the country’s emergency services have been placed on ‘alert’.
Sitting on one of the most active seismic areas in the world, the volcano is Iceland’s second-highest peak and caps the country’s largest volcanic system.
Around 2,600 earthquakes have been detected since the earthquake swarm at Bardarbunga began on Saturday morning, the Icelandic Met Office said yesterday.
‘Closely monitoring the situation’
On Monday, the Icelandic Met Office raised its aviation alert to orange, it’s second-highest level, to signal the heightened risk of eruption at Bardarbunga.
The Irish Aviation Authority has confirmed to TheJournal.ie that is it monitoring the situation.
“The IAA is aware of the increased alert warning concerning the seismic activity that started on 16 August at Bárðarbunga in Iceland and is closely monitoring the situation,” IAA spokesperson Tony Lane said today.
“If any threats to aviation arise we will quickly inform the travelling public. At present all operations are normal.”
Below the surface
On Monday, seismologists recorded an earthquake of 4.5 on the Richter scale, the strongest in the region since 1996. The Icelandic Met Office said that seismic activity had significantly decreased by Monday evening.
The IMO said that although the seismic activity has been caused by magma intrusion, “the majority of events has been at 5-10km depth”.
No signs of migration towards the surface or any other signs of imminent or ongoing volcanic activity have been detected so far. IMO is monitoring the area around the clock very closely and will update in case of any changes.
Vidir Reynisson, department manager at Iceland’s Civil Protection Department, told broadcaster 365: ”We meet twice a day, but the earthquake activity still comes in waves. There do not seem to be any changes, but it is still very powerful.”
In 2010, the Eyjafjoell volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, further to the south, shot a massive plume of volcanic debris up to 9km into the sky, sending ash across the skies to mainland Europe.
- Additional reporting by © AFP, 2014
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I think it’s too soon to get worried about the Icelandic volcano, we should at least wait until the dust settles……..
I see what you did there ;)
I sold my hoover – it was just gathering dust….
Care to share with us whose joke that is?
I preferred the fish one.
What did the fish say when it swam into a wall
DAM!!!
Dunno Red – heard it in the pub, last night.
that joke won top joke at the Edinburgh comedy festival this year.
“I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust” – Tim Vine.
“I’ve written a joke about a fat badger, but I couldn’t fit it into my set” – Masai Graham.
“Always leave them wanting more, my uncle used to say to me. Which is why he lost his job in disaster relief” – Mark Watson.
“I was given some Sudoku toilet paper. It didn’t work. You could only fill it in with number ones and number twos” – Bec Hill.
“I wanted to do a show about feminism. But my husband wouldn’t let me” – Ria Lina.
“Money can’t buy you happiness? Well, check this out, I bought myself a Happy Meal” – Paul F Taylor.
“Scotland had oil, but it’s running out thanks to all that deep frying” – Scott Capurro.
“I’ve been married for 10 years, I haven’t made a decision for seven” – Jason Cook.
“This show is about perception and perspective. But it depends how you look at it” – Felicity Ward.
She gonna blow Jim,
Bárdarbunga (Bar-dar-bunga) volcanic system is the largest in Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull and Grimsvotn could easily fit a corner of it. It’s main crater is 10km wide and entire volcanic system is 200 km long and 10 km wide. It erupted more lava than any other volcano on Earth in the last 10,000 years.
It’s largest historical eruption was in 1477, it was VEI-6 level of intensity i.e. it erupted > 10 km3 of ash and ash column was > 30 km high. It was like Pinatubo (1991).
The ground is now swelling as the magma tries to reach the surface. Geologists installed several GPS monitoring stations across Iceland and they are detecting the swelling / movement caused by the ascending plum of magma. Two GPS stations, 25 – 50 km away from where the earthquakes are happening have so far moved 7 to 8 cm in the last 4 days. This station shows the trend suddenly changed last night, it might have started erupting within the last ~24 hours.
http://strokkur.raunvis.hi.is/~sigrun/DYNC_3mrap.png
One geologist so far thinks there has already been a small eruption (I agree), that lava has already reached the surface (the eruption is hidden beneath 0.5 km of ice of Vatnajokull Glacier). This eruption would be meting the ice under the glacier, potentially creating Glacial lake outburst flood called a Jökulhlaup, which can exceed the flow of the Amazon river. If the eruption reaches the surface, it will look like this but possibly allot bigger.
http://glacierchange.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/grimsvotn-mjr_07.jpg
The Laki eruption of 1783-84 in Iceland is estimated to have killed 23,000 people in England due to poisonous sulphur dioxide pollution and a further 8000 died died to the extremely cold winter weather caused by ash and sulphur dioxide haze obscuring the sun.
Is a major eruption imminent? I
oyal…there ain’t no being on the planet m8 (or on the ISS) wot knows the answer to your most stupid and extremely daft question
are you a 5 year old, m8?
So..:to summise…Iceland is fkd.
Just been for a major eruption myself there… There’s a large cloud rising from the crater, so I opened the bathroom window for a while
I nominate the volcano for the ice water challenge !!
Don’t forget to take out your volcano insurance if You are traveling.
Is it compulsory? will I get penalised for not taking it out when I was younger?
See this is what would have happened if we defaulted
GEOLOGISTS DON’T USE THE RICHTER SCALE!!!!!
WE HAVEN’T USED THEM IN FORTY YEARS!!
We’ve been using the moment magnitude scale since the 1970s.
Well I for one am esoterically outraged!
Fecking Iceland with its fecking volcanos .
every house needs a chimney Catherine …
Im going away the weekend and i dont care if im stuck there a few extra days or weeks once I get there……Viva Las Vegas …Viva Las Vegas….Viva,Viva Las Vegaaassss……;)
Anything more than 3 days in Vegas is a waste.
No more chemtrails for a few weeks.
Chemtrails …… that is absolutely ridicules considering they stopped spraying a few years ago.
They were spraying the other day Glen -
No seriously, the chemtrail switch is right next to the landing lights switch.
Dermot
They still do but nowhere near the scale they were spraying a few years ago …. I know this cause I’m always watching the watchers watching me watching them.
Hello again Glen ;-)
I thought you chaps were into chembursts from clouds now that your insane chemtrail conspiracy has been totally debunked?
@Glen, so they stopped a few yrs ago but still do it!!!!! which is it to be as im confused
Re Paul
I’m not too sure it’s a conspiracy when you have people like the ex Governor of Colombia in Canada stating he knew they were taking place.
have you checked out chunkymark on youtube Glen – he’s a gas man altogether ..well worth it ..no one’s fooling him and his rants are pure quality !
There are farmers in the marts talking about chemtrails…last summer was a great year for watching them …. big xs in the sky and the whole lot …
Lance
Around 2010 they stopped spraying on a massive scale almost daily.
In 2014 you see the odd chemtrails here and there but nothing like it was a few years ago …… Hope that clears it up.
Paul
You only sound silly denying chemtrails when there is thousands of vids of them and billions of witnesses.
I don’t know what a chemtrail (or a tracker mortgage) is!
I don’t know what a glen is
Must go to that country before im 50
…if that country doesn’t come to you first!
Gorgeous people, food and the landscape is alien. Though the hot water smells like farts.
So will ours when the frackin shale-lackin kicks off….. prob cost more too
Imagine if it got really bad and we would have to start taking the ferry again to Britain and France for a awhile instead of flying. ….. Methinks we are living in fairly easy times here in most of Europe
Well for all you home birds this is terrible news for me. I travel a lot and the thoughts of getting stuck like folks were the last time this happened is something I dread.
Guess which way the wind is blowing for the next week? From the North! Get the washin in !
My cat looks after all that. Some day soon – as a reward – I’ll feed him.
Etna to the South of us
Iceland to the North of us ,, and earthquakes from fracking in England …..
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Good one sir …. Good one lol
well done simon that was the song in my head at the time , now it’s in your head ….ha,ha,ha…. funny how music works isn’t it !
Now now Dermot , stop that , no one believes a word of it .
They should take that bleedin volcano of them
Is this the same one which erupted a few years ago? I saw a science program a while ago saying it’s possible that Iceland could easily come apart as their is a plate that runs straight down the middle.
A crack in the Ice(land) so to speak?
That was shameful…. I’ll give you a green thumb though just because I feel sorry for you …!
A pit(h)y thumb so to speak?
Those Icelanders, up to no good as usual.
Personally I blame Isreal for all this UN should investigate.
This must be good news for the economy – can it be that geological change and the dynamics of plate technology will do what our useless politicians have failed to do – as in impede air transport and so stop all those euro fraudsters coming over here every month to pick up their dole and children’s allowance payments when they are not even living here…..Mother earth works in mysterious ways indeed.
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