Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland and Papua New Guinea

August 29th, 2014 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

Threatening earthquake activity for many days finally culminated in an eruption of the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland early this morning.

Bardarbunga volcano webcam screenshot at 7:33 am August 29, 2014.

Bardarbunga volcano webcam screenshot at 7:33 am August 29, 2014.


The eruption seems to be mainly lava at the surface, but a larger explosive ash eruption is still possible, which is what would be required to have any effect on global climate.

A more spectacular eruption occurred in Papua New Guinea about the same time. Tavurvur volcano erupted with an ash cloud reaching to 60,000 ft. altitude, a beautiful photo of which was taken by Joyce Lessimanuaja and tweeted by Shelley Hendel (@shelleyjlh):

Eruption of Tavurvur volcano in Papua New Guinea on the morning of 29 August 2014.

Eruption of Tavurvur volcano in Papua New Guinea on the morning of 29 August 2014.

This eruption barely showed up on NASA MODIS imagery this morning, so I doubt it will result in any climate effects, either.

There is also some pretty awesome video of the Tavurvur eruption, which was very fiery:


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