Magnificent Mount Etna Volcano Roaring Lava [42 Photos]
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Bárðarbunga Volcano Named after Norse Viking
By Páll Stefánsson August 19, 2014
Photo: Páll Stefánsson.
Bárðarbunga volcano, located under Vatnajökull glacier, which has been showing heightened signs of activity in recent days, is named after settler Bárður Bjarnason, later called Gnúpa-Bárður, from the Sognefjord in West Norway.
Bárður came ashore near Húsavík and settled in the valley still bearing his name, Bárðardalur in North Iceland, around the year 900.
Several years later Bárður sent some of his sons—he had nine—to check the land in South Iceland. They made the return journey over the still uninhabited highlands near Bárðarbunga and through the pass Vonarskarð. The path from North to South Iceland is still named Bárðargata.
After his sons returned from the journey to his farm Lundarbrekka in Bárðardalur valley and told him that the vegetation was much better in the south, he moved and founded the farm Gnúpur near Núpsstaður just east of Kirkjubæjarklaustur.
In Landnáma, the book of the Icelandic settlement, Bárður's wife's name is not mentioned but the names of his nine sons were: Sigmundur, Þorsteinn, Egill, Gísli, Nefsteinn, Þorbjörn krum, Hjör, Þorgrímur and Björn.
Bárðarbunga is Iceland's second-highest mountain rising 2,009 meters (6,591 feet) above sea level. It's Iceland's largest volcanic system, 200 km (120 miles) long and 25 km (16 miles) wide.
The glacier on top of the volcano is up to 800 meters (2,625 feet) thick.
The location is very remote and lies 225 km (122 miles) in a straight line northeast from Reykjavík.
A Code Orange was issued yesterday in light of increased likelihood of an eruption after continued earthquakes in the area.
http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/08/19/bardarbunga-volcano-named-after-norse-viking
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Erupting volcano off Japan could cause tsunami
Wednesday 20 Aug 2014
An erupting volcanic island that is expanding off Japan could trigger a tsunami if its freshly-formed lava slopes collapse into the sea, scientists say.
The small, but growing, island appeared last year and quickly engulfed the already-existing island of Nishinoshima, around 1000 kilometres south of Tokyo.
It now covers 1.26 square kilometres.
The island's craters are currently spewing out 200,000 cubic metres of lava every day - enough to fill 80 Olympic swimming pools - which is accumulating in its east, scientists said.
"If lava continues to mount on the eastern area, part of the island's slopes could collapse and cause a tsunami," warned Fukashi Maeno, assistant professor of the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo.
He said a rockfall of 12 million cubic metres of lava would generate a one metre tsunami that could travel faster than a bullet train, hitting the island of Chichijima - 130kms away - in around 18 minutes, he said.
Chichijima, home to about 2000 people, is the largest island in the Ogasawara archipelago, a wild and remote chain that is administratively part of Tokyo.
"The ideal way to monitor and avoid a natural disaster is to set up a new tsunami and earthquake detection system near the island, but it's impossible for anyone to land on the island in the current situation," Maeno added.
An official from the Japan Meteorological Agency, which monitors earthquakes and tsunamis, said the agency is watching for any signs of anything untoward.
"We studied the simulation this morning, and we are thinking of consulting with earthquake prediction experts ... about the probability of this actually happening, and what kind of measures we would be able to take," he said.
Japan's northeast was ravaged by a huge tsunami in March 2011, when a massive undersea earthquake sent a wall of water barrelling into the northeast coast, killing more than 18,000 people and wrecking whole towns.
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