Lava erupting close to Grindavik, Iceland, on 8 February
Iceland Civil Protection/Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photos
The circulate of magma right into a 15-kilometre-long crack forward of the latest volcanic eruptions in Iceland occurred on the highest charge noticed anyplace on this planet for this sort of occasion.
“We are able to have greater charges in very massive eruptions,” says Freysteinn Sigmundsson on the College of Iceland in Reykjavik. “However I’m not conscious of upper estimates of magma flowing right into a crack within the floor.”
Sigmundsson is a part of a staff that has been utilizing ground-based sensors and satellites to watch latest volcanic exercise underneath the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. This started with magma accumulating a number of kilometres beneath the Svartsengi area, the location of a geothermal energy plant that provides heat water to the Blue Lagoon spa, a vacationer attraction.
On 10 November 2023, a large crack a number of kilometres deep and 15 km lengthy fashioned close by. Because it opened, a number of the amassed magma flowed up into it at a charge of 7400 cubic metres per second, the staff has calculated.
That’s round 100 occasions quicker than the magma circulate that occurred throughout eruptions in 2021, 2022 and 2023 within the close by Fagradalsfjall space, says Sigmundsson.
The magma within the crack might be visualised as a chunk of paper, he says, as it’s at most 8 metres broad. The crack fashioned as a result of Iceland is located on a boundary the place tectonic plates are shifting aside.
On 18 December, a so-called fissure eruption started alongside a part of this function, lasting three days. One other, lasting two days, started on 14 January, with a number of the lava reaching the evacuated city of Grindavik.
Whereas the lava flows have consumed just a few buildings, cracks within the floor have finished intensive harm to roads and pipes, and likewise created underground cavities, says Sigmundsson.
On 8 February, one other eruption started somewhat additional away from Grindavik. The lava from this has flowed throughout the pipes carrying sizzling water from the Svartsengi geothermal plant. Because of this heating has been reduce off in some close by areas – most buildings in Iceland depend on geothermal water for heating.
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