Activity in the eruption is reported to not be in decline, and the area of the flow has reached six square kilometers. The flow is still six kilometers from the main branch of the river Jökulsár á Fjöllum, but will shortly be / already is crossing smaller branches. This sudden water interaction can lead to steam explosions. At least three explosions have already occured (which are believed, but not yet confirmed, to have been from water interaction). Theres more recently been some unsual activity (sudden flareups and flaredowns) on the Mila feeds which might possibly be explosions. Its hard to say at this point. At the time of writing, the cameras went from showing very bright to quickly showing absolutely nothing. Bad weather? I have no idea what the cause is. But theyve been showing nothing for quite some time. The last reports on the lava fountains were that they were at times getting even taller, with reports as high as 200 meters (comparative reminder: the Statue of Liberty is 92 meters from the ground to the tip of the torch). I personally would want to see confirmation of that 200 meter figure before I accept such a large number, but needless to say, theyve been at times quite large indeed. Powerul quakes in record-setting abundance continue impact the caldera. Random quaking activity continues in the Askja system. Quake activity remains down in the dike, as the magma has an easy conduit out and no longer needs to break rock to do so. Scientists keep expressing concerns that the eruption could migrate south under the glacier or north into the Askja system. All of this remains unchanged from the previous day. The consensus position of the scientists at the research organization ÍSOR is that this will most likely be a long, protracted event, for the same reasons weve been reporting here: that the magma appears to becoming from the deep reservoirs rather than shallow magma chambers. They also point out, as has been pointed out here, that the comparison with the Krafla Fires is erroneous, as this event has far greater volumes and influx rates of magma at its disposal. They however hold to the theory that Bárðarbunga is subsiding rather than inflating. They offer no explanation for the GPS readings or the depths of the quakes. They simply interpret the roof of the magma chamber as being 10 kilometers deep (abnormally deep for an Icelandic magma chamber), and the lack of quakes underneath is interpreted as the magma chamber being directly over another, even larger magma chamber. In their alternative interpretation of the situation, they still reach the same conclusion: that the quake storm could potentially lead to a major Bárðarbunga eruption. Heres the map: dailykos/story/2014/09/02/1326692/-B-r-arbunga-A-Brief-Update
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:04:20 +0000
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