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The basaltic volcano Katla just outside Reykjavík is close to eruption.
The number of shallow earthqaukes increased to 2000 in th epast 24 hours.
The magma is moving up though the system and is 2-4Km below ground level. When it get that shallow, an eruption is imminent.
Historically, Katla has produced enormous eruptions.
But then again, Volcanoes are entirely unpredictable….But the Icelandic Meteorological Office have declared an ‘eruption imminent’ warning.
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The volcano started erupting about half hour ago. True to form, from earthquake swarm to eruption took 5 days.
Its on its initial phase, and it will be interesting to see it developing. MBL.is and RUV are the Icelandic tv statiosn that have YT live feeds.
Katla erupts every 20 – 80 years however its been more than 100 years since its last major eruption. It could well be a big one ubfolding!
What link are you using to watch it?
The 2 main feeds are MBL.is and RUV. All other channels afar.tv etc just feed off these cameras.
Currently, the remote cameras do not have a good field of view, after all they didnt know where the first lava would flow.
Give it a coupe of days, they will move their equipment to a better location. They use steerable cameras and solar panels, which microwave back to Reykjavik.
Youtuber Just Icelandic has quite a good channel as well.
But in a couple of days it will get better.
?? wow
It si developing very rapidly now.
Lave curtains from a fissure eeruption, again it is the usual style of eruptives.
Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) detected the Dyke forming 3 km long a few days ago.
This is from Gutn Tog and it gives a perspective of the eruption. It looks quite small on the LiveFeeeds.
But this shows it at a human scale…lol..
The guy with the drone goes live again in just uner 2hrs
https://www.youtube.com/@IcelandFPV/streams
ADDS expert comments
A volcano erupted near Iceland’s capital on Monday, the country’s meteorological office said, marking the third time in two years that lava has gushed out in the area.
Local media footage shows a massive cloud of smoke rising from the ground as well as a substantial flow of lava at the site around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Reykjavik.
According to an AFP reporter, the smoke can be seen from the road connecting the capital to the international airport, with cars pulled over and people taking pictures.
“The eruption is taking place in a small depression just north of Litli Hrutur (‘Little Ram’ in Icelandic) from which smoke is escaping in a north-westerly direction,” the meteorological office said.
“There are three fissures with lava basically running in all directions,” Thorvaldur Thordarson, Professor in Volcanology at University of Iceland, told AFP.
He added that the fissures are in total around 200 to 300 meters long and “it is a low intensity, effusive eruption.”
This means “it’s not causing widespread threats due to explosive activity” but “if the eruption continues for long enough it could be a threat to infrastructure.”
Thousands of small earthquakes were recorded in the area in the week leading up to the eruption, signalling that the magma below the ground was moving and an eruption was imminent.
The Icelandic authorities advised against going to the site, located in difficult terrain without road connection, before they have assessed the situation.
The magma broke through the ground at around 1640 GMT, just a few kilometres from two previous eruptions in the last two years.
The first was on March 19, 2021 in the Geldingadalur valley and lasted six months, while the second occurred on August 3, 2022 in the Meradalir valley, lasting three weeks.
Prior to the 2021 eruption, the region had remained dormant for eight centuries, but volcanologists believe the new cycle of increased activity could last several years.
The effusive eruptions that have occurred in this area so far have not been very dangerous, nor have they had any impact on air traffic.
The 2021 and 2022 eruptions attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors hoping to catch a rare glimpse of an active volcano.
Thordarson said the eruption could last anywhere from “a few days” to more than half a year like in 2021, or even longer.
Iceland has 33 volcanic systems currently considered active, the highest number in Europe. It has an eruption every five years on average.
The North Atlantic island straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
In April 2010, some 100,000 flights were cancelled, leaving more than 10 million travellers stranded, following the massive eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
Other volcanoes, such as Askja in the uninhabited highlands of central Iceland, have recently shown signs of activity.
One of the country’s most dangerous volcanoes is Katla, near the south coast. It last erupted in 1918, with an unusually long pause suggesting an imminent reawakening.
The 1783 eruption of the Laki volcanic fissure in the south of the island is considered by some experts to be the most devastating in Iceland’s history, causing its biggest environmental and socio-economic catastrophe.
Between 50 to 80 percent of Iceland’s livestock was killed, leading to a famine that left a quarter of the country’s population dead.
The meteorological impact of the eruption also had repercussions for several years, with some experts suggesting it may have played a part in triggering the French Revolution!!
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