Yesterday, at noon Icelandic time, the Scientific Advisory Board announced “The eruption in Holuhraun, [...] has come to an END.”
Unfortunately,
Other lava eruptions have taught that the lava field continues to emit gas for a long time yet and without the thermal rise from an open vent, the volcanic gases will tend to follow the ground. Therefore, even higher values of more polluting gas may be expected now than in recent weeks.
So, no immediate relief for those breathing Icelandic air, but I hope that in the not-too-distant future,
Rei can continue her work in comfort.
Thanks, Rei, as well as everyone else who has added comments and diaries to the fascinating story of Bárðarbunga.
Now I'm back to my reading. A couple of months before the eruption started, I found four books on plate tectonics at a used book shop, and am working through them, from popular writing to the hardcore stuff. It's fascinating seeing how the idea of continents in motion (title of one book), scoffed at for decades, forced itself on geology in the late 60s and early 70s.