Iceland’s Grímsvötn volcano explodes- massive swarm of large earthquakes follow

May 21, 2011 – ICELAND – Iceland’s Meteorological Office confirmed Saturday that an eruption had begun, and local media said smoke could be seen coming from the volcano. Grimsvotn lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland. It last erupted in 2004. Scientists have been expecting a new eruption and have said previously that this volcano’s eruption will likely be small and should not lead to the air travel chaos caused in April 2010 by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano. -USA Today

History: Grímsvötn, Iceland’s most frequently active volcano in historical time lies largely beneath the vast Vatnajökull icecap. The caldera lake is covered by a 200-m-thick ice shelf, and only the southern rim of the 6 x 8 km caldera is exposed. The geothermal area in the caldera causes frequent jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods) when melting raises the water level high enough to lift its ice dam. Long NE-SW-trending fissure systems extend from the central volcano. The most prominent of these is the noted Laki (Skaftar) fissure, which extends to the SW and produced the world’s largest known historical lava flow during an eruption in 1783. The 15-cu-km basaltic Laki lavas were erupted over a 7-month period from a 27-km-long fissure system. Extensive crop damage and livestock losses caused a severe famine that resulted in the loss of one-fifth of the population of Iceland.

Earth Changes, Earth Watch, Earthquake Omens?, High-risk potential hazard zone, Landslide & geological deformation, Potential Earthchange hotspot, Signs of Magnetic Field weakening, Volcano Watch.