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Iceland Volcano Growing Closer to Eruption; Meteorological Office Raises Orange Alert

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Iceland is bracing for an eruption from its Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which has been exhibiting an increasing amount of "magma movement."

According to BBC News, Iceland's meteorological office has raised their aviation industry's alert level to orange, the second highest possible. Eyjafjallajokull last erupted in 2010 and created a cloud of ash that seriously disrupted air travel across Europe.

The Met office stated an earthquake that hit Monday was "the strongest earthquake measured in the region since 1996," which has been preceded by "intense seismic activity" on Aug. 16.

"Presently there are no signs of eruption, but it cannot be excluded that the current activity will result in an explosive subglacial eruption, leading to an outburst flood and ash emission," the met office said in a statement.

An orange alert means the volcano has the potential to erupt and is showing more and more signs that such an event will happen, BBC News reported. A red alert would mean that an eruption is bound to occur.

The Iceland Review reported that earthquakes have been "near continuous since Saturday," but there has not been any evidence to suggest magma has broken the surface.

"Over the last seven years seismic activity has been gradually increasing in Bárðarbunga and the fissure swarm north of the volcano. This activity dropped down at the Grímsvötn eruption in May 2011, but soon after, the activity started to gradually increase again and has now reached similar level of activity to that just before the Grímsvötn eruption. Earlier this year, in the middle of May 2014, there was a small swarm of over 200 events and now the present swarm has already generated at least 300 earthquakes," the Met office said. "Since early June 2014, displacements at GPS stations around Vatnajökull (Hamarinn, Grímsfjall, Vonarskarð and Dyngjuháls) show an increased upward movement and away from Bárðarbunga. Together, these two systems indicate magma movements in Bárðarbunga.

"Due to increased seismicity IMO has decided to turn volcano Bárðarbunga status to yellow. In case of a sub-aerial eruption, an ash plume of potential concerns for aviation will be generated."

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