Scientists from the Icelandic Met Office and the Institute of Earth Sciences and representatives of the Civil Protection in Iceland attend the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Icelandic Civil Protection. Conclusions of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Icelandic Civil Protection:
A noticeable decrease in seismicity has occurred during the last 24 hours. The level of activity is approximately half of that during recent days. Since midnight today, around 300 earthquakes have occurred. At the same time yesterday, 01 September, around 500 earthquakes had been detected.
The rate of deformation at GPS sites closest to the dyke intrusion has decreased. Together with an overnight decrease in seismicity, this implies that magma inflow appears to match magma outflow at the eruption site.
The eruption has not created any ash-fall.
A white plume of steam and gas rises from the eruption on Holuhraun, reaching an elevation of about 4.5 km above sea level. Downwind, a volcanic cloud extends from the eruption site. Yesterday afternoon, a white cloud from the eruption extended 60 km to the north-north-east.
In comparison to yesterday, more sulphur dioxide has been measured in the eruption cloud.
Sandstorms on the floodplain around the eruption site have contributed fine-grained particles to the eruption cloud. This was seen as a light-brown haze earlier today near to Egilsstaðir.
The eruptive fissure is about 1.5 km in length, positioned about 4.5 km from the ice margin of Dyngjujökull.
At 14:00 UTC yesterday, the lava flow was 4.2 km2 in area. At 08:00 UTC the edge had extended 1.5 km to the east-south-east.
The eruption continues, although there appears to have been a slight decrease in activity compared to yesterday.
It remains unclear how the situation will develop. Four scenarios are still considered most likely:
From the Icelandic Met Office:
The Aviation Colour Code for Bárðarbunga remains at ‘orange’ and the code for Askja at ‘yellow’.