Moomin71

Don't be so sure Beanz, I will have swapped my Defender for a Tesla (not my choice work told me to!) by mid September. Last time I didn't have a Defender/Utility Land Rover was between 2009 and 2011...... Not chart analysis or statistics but just saying

Yes it does worry me, we should be OK as I am in a good job etc but we are still already paying more than double that we were paying last year, whilst we can take that hit there are many who cant and it will mean we wont spend the money on extra stuff or simple things like going to Aldi rather than the farm shop. its these impacts that just is not being discussed in the press as well as the impact on SMEs Of these very high energy costs, unless whoever the new PM is actually gets hold of this and does something very significant then I do worry for all of us what impact it will have on the economy and society, i am usually a very positive person but at the moment the prospects for this winter are looking pretty grim.

This is a beautiful song, Eva Cassidy's version is quite astonishing.

Mambo No 5 reminds me of this transition. Must have been September 98 or 99 a group of us from Uni met up at a mates house in Bristol for a weekend of revelry and it was a glorious weekend, warn sunny and still, bit too still for the kite festival at Clifton Park they had to drag the big kites around the arena by landrover to get them airborne. Mambo No5 was played a lot in the clubs we went to, weather started to turn properly autumnal after that. A great weekend and happy times. Daft song but always raises a smile!

Yay its back, just need the Daily Express headlines of Snowmageddon and we're fully up for the winter!

Yes just had 15 mins of lightning rumbling and hail just south of Oswestry, looks as though the storm stretches over to Shrewsbury.

I think the hard working rescue teams might be having a joke?? Does beg the question how you could start a volcanic eruption, best i can think of would require something like a drilling rig advancing a borehole at just the right location into the underlying magma and having a drill crew who are fit enough to run really fast once they've started it , obviously the drill rig would be lost. Or a really big bomb perhaps in just the right spot.

Apparently claustrophobia isn't too much of an issue but the water is so incredibly clear its not uncommon for divers to suffer from vertigo! M

Quite right Lorenzo. That photo is pretty impressive, it must be one hell of a feather under that ice to result in a surface expression of that magnitude! Picking up on Rustynailers point, there will be some melt although where that's going at the moment is a bit of a mystery unless it isn't erupting yet and that depression is as the official web sites are suggesting is just the result of rifting. If it is erupting under there it will be melting but could be getting trapped, a bit like a dam, this will give way at some point with a huge outburst flood. Grimsvotn did this in 1994 if I remember correctly and took out a number of bridges and sections of the main ring road. M

No it will take a while unless it gets very explosive, the ice and meltwater will cool the surface of the lava which sort of insulates it, that's why Grimsvotn and Bardabunga are almost completely entombed in ice, they've erupted most of the time sub glacially. A good indicator as to what these volcanos probably look like is Herdubreid, this was similar to Grimsvotn, etc in that it was formed beneath an ice cap. This graben development is getting very interesting, things could get considerably more active, this looks to me like it has the potential to become a rift fissure eruption, which if it happens partly beneath the ice will prove explosive and long lasting. M

I think Rustynailer probably summed it up, it is most likely due to lower resistance either the fissures are more open now or, as the dramatic photos suggest the surface cracking is leading to a reduction in pressure. If it was a reduction in the volume of magma I think we'd see a much bigger drop in the number of earthquakes, whereas the frequency doesn't seem to have reduced that much just the magnitude. It can't be long now before it erupts, just have to see if it will interact with Askja or not and if the central volcano will play a part or not. Very impressive photos, sort of stuff nightmares are made of, reminds me of that film from the 1950 I think where the earth was going to be split in two unless some mad geologist launched a nuclear missile down a mine shaft, bonkers film very enjoyable though, lots of scary cracks appearing and disasters happening, anyway somewhat off topic there. Will have to see how things are in the morning. M

I was wondering that myself but I can't tell if it is more water or if its just the sunlight reflecting off the water. M

Blimey, take your eyes off it overnight and it goes mad! Some big events all over the area this morning and now well intersecting Askja. Yesterday it looked to me like the dyke may track to the east of Askja, clearly its just gone straight for it. Things could start to get very interesting looking at the discussions presented in the links posted throughout this discussion. Especially if it reactivates the magma beneath Askja.

I think the 4.6 in the dyke and the 3.3 at 30km could be another pulse of magma coming in from depth. That idea will be better supported if there are any more of that magnitude anywhere in the dyke and any further ones at depth. If I'm right it may also be indicating the magma is going straight for the dyke and bypassing Bardabunga. The link John Pike posted has some good information, interesting to see the dyke is now 10km north of the ice cap, although the depth of the activity is not pointing to eruption yet if it does happen it seems more than likely it will be at least in part in the open, watch for an increase in very shallow activity.

Yes quite right Snow, it would be interesting to see if there's any settlement data or gravity data from Bardabunga to see if it backs that up, the link below shows some GPS data http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/bardarbunga-nature-of-the-beast/ But its not from Bardabunga specifically and a few days old now. Activity does seem to be tailing off but just spotted that there was a 3.3 at 30km depth about 12:30, could this be a fresh pulse of magma?? M