Tuesday, April 6, 2010

It Angers The Mountain

...when You Picnic On Him.Release the Hell Hound!(Epic Win) I'm assuming the above photos are from the ongoing eruption at Fimmvörduháls Pass in Iceland. (I have previously identified this as the "Eyjafjallajökull" volcano; that name more properly refers to the ice sheet to the west of the volcano.) There have truly been some spectacular pictures from this eruption. While there is potential for the fissure to extend farther and cause serious problems, thus far it's been active enough to be a real show, but gentle enough to allow people to get up close and personal.

Ole Nielsen, at the always-fascinating Olelog, posted an excellent summary of events a couple of days ago. If you are uncertain whether you understand the broad setting and the potential danger from an increased eruptive scale, I can't recommend that post highly enough.

NASA's Earth Observatory posted a new satellite image of the area yesterday. Note that north is to the right, not the traditional top, in this image. (The full-size image can be seen here, and an older image here.) Geology Rocks posted this picture of a lavafall (Click for full size at Flickr: Those are cars parked around the base!)
Blair Grylls at Mountain Cat Geology found an even better one:If you take a look at the full-size photo, you can clearly see a dragon head and neck rising from the mid slope below the lavafall.

There are also galleries at Buzzfeed, National Geographic, and The Daily Mail, in case your socks are not sufficiently off-knocked.

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