Icelandic Eruption Update for 3/29/2010
Busy busy today, so just a brief update on the ongoing Fimmvörðuháls/Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland.
The coalesced vent of the Fimmvörðuháls fissure eruption in late March 2010.
The eruption is still going, albeit potentially with a little less vigor than before - and you can watch it on the Vodafone webcam, along with these other webcams from Mila.is. Haraldur Sigurdsson says that the eruption may have peaked (Icelandic) and is ~25% less vigorous than it was a few days ago, but this could change without notice. A fairly significant, long, low scoria cone has formed and lava flows from the fissure have spilled down the brown slopes near the vent - you can see the steam on the webcam images of the lava coming down towards the Vodafon webcam location. There is also some new images showing the inflation of the area prior to the eruptions - the first set on inSAR images are between 1999 and 2010, so rates of deformation prior to March 20, 2010 are unclear (at least in the data set that has been released).
This eruption has become a big time tourist draw in Iceland (for good reason), and so far it has been quiescent enough to allow for the tourists to see the eruption in safety. Lots of people have been posting some incredible images of the eruption - note the size of the cars in the background of the some of the images to get a sense of scale.
{Hat tips all around for many of the links in this post.}
