On February 8th, lava erupted near Grindavik, Iceland.
Iceland Civil Defense/Handout/Anadolu, via Getty Images
Prior to the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland, the influx of magma into the 15-kilometre-long fissure occurred at the highest rate of its kind ever observed anywhere in the world.
“Higher eruption rates can occur in very large eruptions,” he says.
Freistein Sigmundson at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. “But I don't know of any higher estimates for magma flowing into cracks in the surface.”
Sigmundsson is part of a team that is monitoring recent volcanic activity beneath Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula using ground-based sensors and satellites. It started when magma built up several kilometers beneath the Svartsengi region, the site of a geothermal power plant that supplies hot water to the tourist attraction Blue Lagoon Spa.
On November 10, 2023, a giant fissure several kilometers deep and 15 kilometers long formed nearby. When the magma opened, some of the accumulated magma flowed into it at a speed of 7,400 cubic meters per second, according to the researchers' calculations.
This is about 100 times faster than the magma flow that occurred during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 eruptions in the nearby Fagradalsfjall region, Sigmundsson said.
The magma inside the crack is at most 8 meters wide, so it can be visualized like a piece of paper, he says. This crack formed because Iceland is located on the boundary where the tectonic plates are moving apart.
On December 18, a so-called fissure eruption began along part of this terrain and lasted for three days. Another lava wave that lasted two days began on January 14, with some of the lava reaching the evacuated town of Grindavik.
Sigmundsson said the lava flow destroyed only a few buildings, but cracks in the ground caused extensive damage to roads and pipes, and created underground cavities.
On February 8, another eruption began a short distance from Grindavik. Lava from here flowed across pipes carrying hot water from the Svartsengi geothermal power plant. This means heating is cut off in some neighborhoods, and most buildings in Iceland rely on geothermal water for heating.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
