En la web de
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php?area=&lang=eng la erupción del volcán Grimsvotn lo han puesto en el apartado de emergencias, actualizando constantemente su evolución:
Situation Update No. 4
On 02.11.2010 at 04:02 GMT+2
In April, clouds of ash from an eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier grounded flights across Europe for a week, causing billions of dollars in losses for airlines and other industries. Water now pouring from Iceland's biggest glacier, Vatnajokull, which sits on top of a number of volcanic hot spots, could be a sign of fresh geological activity, said Gudrun Johannesdottir. Eyjafjallajokull is about 60 miles southeast of Vatnajokull. "We have to check if there will be an eruption," Ms Johannesdottir said. "Sometimes it initiates an eruption when a glacial outburst flood starts, but not every the time. So we are monitoring the situation closely." The latest eruption at Grimsvotn, in 2004, caused short-term disruptions to airline traffic into Iceland.
[Photo is upload.]
Situation Update No. 3
On 01.11.2010 at 18:55 GMT+2
An Icelandic volcano has shown signs it could be about to burst into life, just months after an eruption from another volcano caused Europe's biggest air shutdown since World War II. "The water levels have tripled in (the river) Gigja since last night," water measurement specialist Gunnar Sigurdsson of the Icelandic Meteorological Institute said. The water flooding into the Gigja, on the Vatnajoekull glacier in eastern Iceland, comes from an icy lake in the crater of the Grimsvoetn volcano. Due to increased thermal temperatures, the lake and surrounding glacier area has melted, filling the crater to a point where it has spilled over and caused a so-called river-run, which in turn could easily set off an eruption. In 2004, a similar flood from the Grimsvoetn lake was closely followed by an eruption from what is considered Iceland's most active volcano. Mr Sigurdsson said an eruption was unlikely to occur "until the water levels in Gigja have reached a maximum. "I don't know when we can expect the levels to reach their highest point, but I suspect it will be in a few days," he said. Over the past 48 hours, the Meteorological Institute has also registered strong seismic activity in the area, and three moderate earthquakes ranging from 2.7 to 4.0 on the Richter scale.
However, Icelandic authorities were unable to say whether an eruption at Grimsvotn would hit air traffic as hard as in April when the Eyjafjoell volcano erupted, dispersing a massive cloud of ash that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers. "It is near impossible to say if Grimsvotn erupts, whether it will have an effect on air traffic at all," said Keflavik Airport spokeswoman Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, pointing out it would depend if the volcano spewed lava or ash. "If it is an ash eruption, then it would affect air traffic, but only if it is a strong eruption with ash clouds reaching significant heights," she said, adding "it will also depend on wind, so at this point it is hard to guess." Thorunn Skaftadottir, a geophysicist also with the Icelandic Meteorological Institute, said that any eruption from Grimsvotn would be an ash eruption. "However, the scale of the eruption will be much smaller than the Eyjafjoell eruption and I do not think it would have the same effect on air travel as Eyjafjoell did," she said.
Situation Update No. 2
On 01.11.2010 at 15:51 GMT+2
Meltwater flooding is from the Grimsvotn glacial lake in Iceland and could signal the volcano underneath is about to erupt, a spokeswoman at the Icelandic Civil Protection Department reported on Monday. In April, clouds of ash from an eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier grounded flights across Europe for a week, causing billions of dollars in losses for airlines and other industries. Water now pouring from Iceland's biggest glacier, Vatnajokull, which sits on top of a number of volcanic hotspots, could be a sign of fresh geological activity, Civil Protection Department spokeswoman Gudrun Johannesdottir said. Eyjafjallajokull is about 100 km southeast of Vatnajokull. "We have to check if there will be an eruption," Johannesdottir said. "Sometimes it initiates an eruption when a glacial outburst flood starts, but not every the time. So we are monitoring the situation closely." The latest eruption at Grimsvotn, in 2004, caused short-term disruptions to airline traffic into Iceland.
Situation Update No. 1
On 01.11.2010 at 12:39 GMT+2
Torrents of water are pouring from a glacier that sits atop Iceland's most active volcano, an indication that the mountain is growing hotter and may be about to erupt, scientists said Monday. The flood that began Thursday at the Grimsvotn volcano is similar to one in 2004 that lasted five days and ended with an eruption that disrupted European air traffic, University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson said. In April, millions of air travelers around the world were grounded when ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano led most northern European countries to close airspace for five days. There are no signs yet of the underground tremors that would signal an eruption at Grimsvotn, Icelandic Meteorological Office geophysicist Gunnar Gudmundsson said. Grimsvotn lies under 650 feet (200 meters) of ice on the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland. In addition to 2004, it erupted in 1998 and 1996, causing flooding to a largely uninhabited plain around it. The flooding triggered by hot molten rock, or magma, from the volcano has been expanding a lake underneath the glacier, building pressure strong enough to send water pouring from under the ice cap. A rugged island in the north Atlantic, Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically active countries.