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Taking stock in the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and its aftermath

The fallout of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption will likely be far reaching, from the politics of the EU, to climate research, to the future of air travel.


nA night shot of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption showing the glowing plume from the strombolian explosions and the Aurora Borealis overhead.


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A quick update on the current activity at Eyjafjallajökull eruption: the eruption continues at the summit craters, but there seems to be less ash being erupted, at least yesterday. The latest update from the Icelandic Met Office suggest that things are settling down – but floods are still periodically being produced by melting of the glacier:

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Volcanic tremor has been similar the last 24 hours. GPS stations around Eyjafjallajökull showed deflation associated with the eruption.

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The plume could be seen on IMO’s radar till 04:00. This morning it rose up to 16.000 feet, ca 4.8 km, and ash is blowing towards west.

nnWater in Markarfljot river increased slightly yesterday, probably due to continuous flow from the eruption area (Gigjökull).nnn

You can keep up with changes in the ash cloud over on the UK Met Office Volcano Blog.

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As the hub-bub begins to die down from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, we can talk about some of the interesting ramifications of such a prominent volcanic eruption (at least in terms of the amount of news coverage):

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UPDATE: One quick update, but here is a great post on the NASA Earth Observatory, showing not only the visual record of the ash plume, but also compositional data. Great stuff!

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UPDATE 2:: OK, one last update – here is an article from NSF talking about the state of glaciovolcanic studies. Lots of nice images modern and ancient evidence of lava-ice interaction.

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Unless something changes dramatically, I likely won’t have any new posts until Monday – but feel free to post any interesting related information here!


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