The glacial flood hitting the bridge over Skálm river yesterday at around 3 pm. (Photo: Sveinbjörn Darri Matthíasson via Icelandic Met Office)
After a relatively quiet year, the alert level of the volcano has been raised to yellow by Icelandic authorities. A strong glacial flood started yesterday, increasing the flow rate of the Skálm river to more than 1000 cubic meters a second, resulting in the destruction of a part of the ring road and bridge over the river.
A possible cause of the flood could be a small subglacial eruption of the volcano, which is statistically believed to be due for a new eruption.
As of today, the flood is slowly decreasing, but it might take several days until normal levels are reached again.