Jökull - 01.12.2003, Síða 22

Thordarson et al.
saw a black volcanic cloud rise up north of the high-
est mountains bordering the Síða district. It spread
out rapidly towards the south with tephra fall in Síða
and the western part of Fljótshverfi (Figure 5a), such
that it became dark indoors at midday. Black ash-
like dust and “hairs” (i.e., Pele’s hair) covered the
ground. Rainfall later that day contained so much vol-
canic dust that it looked like black ink (B3–11). No
tephra fall occurred in the adjacent Skaftártunga dis-
trict (B7). Later that day columns of fire were seen
both from Síða and Skaftártunga. According to Rev-
erend Einar Björnsson during his visit at Prestbakki,
three fires were seen northwest of the farm Mörtunga
(B8). Steingrímsson describes the same fires as nu-
merous columns of fire (B3). Jón Eiríksson saw one
column of fire on 8 June (B7). Tephra fall eased in the
afternoon on 8 June, which coincided with the arrival
of southerly sea breeze (B4). The following day the
plume was clearly visible from the Síða district and
still rising. A rainfall that evening was reported to be
from the volcanic cloud (B12).
The weather was cloudy on 10 June and acrid ash
laden rain containing Pele’s hair poured down most
of the day. The rain was accompanied by a sulfurous
stench and was so polluted that it afflicted the peo-
ple with dizziness and smarting in their eyes and skin.
The raindrops burned holes through leaves and pro-
duced spots on the skin of newly shorn sheep (B13–
15). On 11 June there was a strong wind from the east
with snowfall and drift (B17). Tephra-fall was only
reported from the moors above Skaftártunga (B19,
Figure 5a). On this day Jón Eiríksson at Ljótarstaðir
in Skaftártunga noticed two new eruption sites to the
northeast of the first one (B18). Between 11 and 14
June, Árni Thorarinsson saw three separate eruption
columns from his home, Oddi in Rangárvellir, over
100km to the west of the eruption site (B20). Earth-
quakes recommenced in the early hours of 9 June and
increased continuously until 11 June, which was the
last day of the continuous earthquakes (A4–7).
On 9 June, the flow of water in the Skaftá River
began to dwindle considerably and its channel dried
up on 10 or 11 June, apart from for the run off from
local tributaries (C3–7). A friend, who lived at the
farm Skál in the Síða district, sent a letter to Sveinn
Pálsson. The letter describes a trip undertaken on 11
June by him and a few other men that went woodcut-
ting in the Síða highlands along the eastern side of the
Skaftá River gorge. The riverbed had dried up so they
let the logs fall into the gorge. At the same time, they
noticed a huge steam cloud rise up from the north-
ern part of the gorge. Later that day they observed
a glowing lava stream, filling the gorge and advanc-
ing rapidly (the position of this lava front is shown on
Figure 5a). While they collected their belongings the
lava flowed over and burned all of the logs they had
cut down (C7).
On 12 June the first of five lava surges emerged
from the gorge onto the farmlands located on the
glacio-fluvial sandur plain in front of it (C8–12). At
the end of the day, the flow front had reached the
fields of the farm Á, about 3 km south of the mouth of
the gorge (C9; Figure 5a). On 14 June the front was
reported to be 20 fathoms (about 35 m) away from the
graveyard at the farm Skál (C13), some 30 km south
of the first fissure to open.
On 13 June, the wind was from the southwest and
the eruption column rose high enough (i.e., »2 km)
that it could be seen from Selvogsheiði in southwest-
ern Iceland, 300 km away (B23–24). On this day an
exploratory party climbed Mt. Kaldbakur to the north
of the Síða district to get a good view over the eruption
site. Steingrímsson notes that these men saw 20 fire
columns (fountains) in Úlfarsdalur Valley and 7 oth-
ers in the hillock further to east (i.e., Úlfarsdalssker)
(B25–26). The only lava stream seen by these farm-
ers was the one in the Skaftá River gorge. Earthquakes
recommenced on 13 June (A8–11) and on 14 June, in
calm weather and a light southerly breeze, a substan-
tial tephra-fall was reported in the Síða district (Fig-
ure 5b). This tephra fall contained such an abundance
of Pele’s hair that it rolled up into elongated bun-
dles blown around by the wind. Steingrímsson clearly
states that this tephra-fall contained much more of the
hairy material than previous ones. Acid and ash-laden
heavy rainfall, as previously described on June 10 th,
occurred that night despite the southerly wind (B27–
29). The night before the 15th a second lava surge
came out of the Skaftá River gorge resulting in further
advance of the lava front onto to the plains in front of
20 JÖKULL No. 53, 2003