Iceland Issues Aviation Red Alert
The Iceland Met Office reports that a small subglacial lava-eruption has begun under the Dyngjujokull glacier. There are yet no signs of an eruption at the surface. The eruption is overlain by 150-400 meters of ice.
Little is known of the eruptive behavior of the volcano and some have reasoned that since the eruptive location is not underneath the center of the volcano the eruption would not be as intense as 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
The next question is whether or not the eruption melts the overlaying ice, and if that does occur there will likely be an explosive eruption of some magnitude. Met Office vulcanologist Melissa Pfeffer has said the size of any surface eruption is yet unknown. The more ice that there is above the eruption the more explosive a surface eruption is likely to be.
A live webcam of the Bardarbunga volcano is available here.
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