Sigrún Davíðsdóttir's Icelog

There is steam and ash rising up from Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier, in the South East of Iceland. The eruption is in a place called Grímsvötn. Eruption happen at regular intervals under the glacier, the fire from below melts the ice, the water lifts the ice cap and ‘leaps’ onto the sands below the glacier. It’s now expected that the ‘leap,’ the floods, will start tomorrow morning. Usually, the floods start 10-12 hours after the eruption starts.

The world, in particular the air companies, doesn’t need to hyper ventilate in fear of the eruption endangering flights. This type of eruption happens frequently, with no particular disruption in the air. The floods, however, can often wash away roads and bridges but the infrastructure there is made with this in mind. Remains to be seen what forces are at large this time. The last eruption in Grímsvötn was in 2004 when the ‘leap’ was strong and destructive.

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