English groups many different concepts together into the word "know", while Icelandic has many different words for each kind of knowledge.
People vita facts. People kunna a skill. Your acquaintances þekkja you, in that they're familiar with your existence, but do they really skilja you? If you wanted to visit them, it's not a question of whether you know the way but whether you rata there. If you've talking about having known hardship, the verb is þola. And I'd rather not get into "know" in the biblical sense ;)
But the type of "know" we're going to cover today is kynnast - to get to know something. And to þekkja better the lava flow, to skilja what's going to happen in the future, we need to vita more about the area, hopefully so well that you could kunna að rata there. So I hope you'll þola this little linguistics aside as we move on to kynnast the area around the far tip of the lava flow... the area around Vaðalda.
First, though, we need a current map. Thankfully, Jarðvísindastofnun provided one! Unfortunately, due to conditions they were only able to explore the north side, the side not being actively fed by a lava river and which is merely creeping. So I've helpfully annotated the map to help clarify the situation:
But let's look at where the flow got to on its first run, a different vantage point to some shots we posted previously:
You can see the lava flow stopped just short of the waterfall Skínandi and the hill Vaðalda. But countours of the area are everything, now aren't they? So let's head down to ground level. First, let's look at where the river gets most constrained:
(Credit: Jósef Hólmjárn)
Here we are on the eastern slopes of Vaðalda, looking northeast at Upptyppingar, where a river flow meter is. You can see how the river is pinned in between tall cliffs and the hill. While this would be an excellent spot to dam a driver, it's also rather far from the lava flow, and not likely to be reached as things stand. So let's get closer to the flow.
(Credit: Jósef Hólmjárn)
Okay, still quite sizeable cliffs in a narrow area. But we're still not even all the way to Skínandi yet, let alone to the current flow. So let's move a bit further toward the eruption.
(Credit: Jósef Hólmjárn)
Here we are on the south, looking out over Skínandi. If the lava was visible in this picture, it'd be out in the river on the far right of this picture. Let's get a little closer.
(Credit: Jósef Hólmjárn)
The lava in this shot would be about 80% up and right, reaching across those sandbars in the middle of the braided channels ater having flowed nearly 20 kilometers. The river currently is confined to a narrow channel to the left.
Now, we've in the past posted lots of pictures taken from the near bank where there's a dropoff. But what about that far bank? We've never had a good picture of that before. Until now:
(Credit: Jósef Hólmjárn)
(As with all pics, right click and view image for a larger, clearer view)
The thin bank immediately touching the river is perhaps 1/2 to 1 meter tall. In the background, you can see what look like bedrock outcroppings with loose material over an around it. Jobbi estimates these outcroppings at about 4-5 meters tall. The topo map at Ja.is shows an even higher overall height between the main river channel and the next channel ("Channel B") which you can barely see in the distance - perhaps as much as 20 meters. But as Jobbi has spent ample time in the area as a guide, I would defer to his assessment of the height. :)
What's his take on the situation? He personally thinks the most likely situation is for any damming to be limited. He doesn't believe that the eruption will last long enough to behave as a shield eruption and have flows that reach long distances flowing over each other. He also thinks that the terrain will limit lake formation and when the river is forced to rise it will respond by cutting deeper channels into the loose material that's present in many locations. That said, he would appreciate extensive lava flows and damming because the loose dust currently in the area can be extremely annoying. ;)
Regardless, it'll be interesting to watch. But for now to see what exactly the flows are doing on the south side of the river, we have to wait for the flight this weekend. I had been quite tempted to write a program to take the Míla cameras and reverse-map the location of the nighttime lava glow into positions on a map. However, given how they regularly change the angle and view of the cameras, I would have to carefully work out a perspective mapping and then they could just ruin it the next day. So for now, I think I'll pass on that one.
At least the Míla cameras are far enough away that the heat from the lava isn't going to melt them like it did the camera on the drone.
Winter is shutting down the highland roads. Most won't reopen until the middle of next summer:
But enough with earth, water, fire, and ice. Let's talk about the air.
(Credit: Ólafur Björnsson)
Another day another series of towns with pollution levels in the thousands - the highest reading at 2400. My own Hvalfjörður got into the danger zone the other day :(
How does the SO2 pollution levels compare with that from major European polluters? No, that's not the question to ask. The question to ask is how does it compare to all of Europe combined. The newest estimate of 35.000 tonnes per day puts it at 2 1/2 times that of all of the EU - the world's largest economy - combined. Of course, the EU also has other pollutants than SO2, but so does the current eruption - and it comes out as a point source.
Still, it could be worse. It's not as bad as Laki. :) And there's no huge caldera eruption sending out ash and huge jökulhlaup. So, as the Reykjavík Grapevine sarcastically put it....
(Credit: The Reykjavík Grapevine)
Lastly... while I have no new map for you for the lava flow, because frankly, nobody does, and there's no new pictures today... please take as a consolation this older flyover vid. :)
And a couple accelerate-time Míla vids I made. 400x?
1300x?
4500x???
Don't blink. :)
(I'm glad that you all kunna að meta this series :) )
Update, 20:55: No article tonight - there's some pictures I'm waiting for for the next one. :)
