Posted on 12/19/2023 11:47:31 AM PST by Red Badger
“We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, an Icelandic volcanologist.
The last time I checked on the volcano in Iceland, one of the nation’s geologists noted that the threat of an eruption had decreased by 90% due to the solidification of magma around the active center of seismic activity near the town of Grindavík.
Like many “expert” scientific projections in recent history, this one was less than entirely predictive. Today, about an hour after an earthquake swarm, the fissure volcano erupted about two miles from Grindavik.
A volcano in southwestern Iceland began erupting Monday with lava fountains reaching up to 330 feet and the glow visible miles away in the center of the capital, Reykjavik.
The location of the fissure poses a risk to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant and to the town of Grindavík, which was evacuated last month because of heightened seismic activity.
“We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, a volcanologist in Iceland. “The eruption appears big, and only about two kilometers from major infrastructure.”
Thousands of earthquakes had been detected in Iceland since late October, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. In November, with homes and roads being damaged, the authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated Grindavík, a town of more than 3,000 people near the volcano.
More recently, the Meteorological Office warned of a “significant likelihood of a volcanic eruption in coming days.”
The exact location and scale of the eruption have yet to be determined.
The Met Office said a Coast Guard helicopter would be taking off to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption, adding that more information would be provided as soon as it becomes available.
An image posted to the agency’s website showed lava spewing out of cracks in the ground.
The Met Office said the crack in the earth’s surface was about 2.1 miles long and had grown rapidly.
Despite official warnings, people are returning to the area to examine the geologic show closely.
The fissure is getting so large that scientific instruments put out in the rural region to measure and track its development are at risk of being destroyed. The Norwegian Meteorological Agency estimated that 100 to 200 cubic meters of lava is spewing out per second, which is ‘many times more than in previous eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent years.’
Hundreds were seen returning to the region, despite several Icelandic authorities warning them to stay away for their own safety.
After Weeks of Seismic Activity, Iceland’s Volcano Finally Erupts “We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, an Icelandic volcanologist.
Posted by Leslie Eastman Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at 09:00am 4 Comments Share This StoryFacebookTwitterTelegramGabMeWeRedditEmail
The last time I checked on the volcano in Iceland, one of the nation’s geologists noted that the threat of an eruption had decreased by 90% due to the solidification of magma around the active center of seismic activity near the town of Grindavík.
Like many “expert” scientific projections in recent history, this one was less than entirely predictive. Today, about an hour after an earthquake swarm, the fissure volcano erupted about two miles from Grindavik.
A volcano in southwestern Iceland began erupting Monday with lava fountains reaching up to 330 feet and the glow visible miles away in the center of the capital, Reykjavik.
The location of the fissure poses a risk to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant and to the town of Grindavík, which was evacuated last month because of heightened seismic activity.
“We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, a volcanologist in Iceland. “The eruption appears big, and only about two kilometers from major infrastructure.”
Thousands of earthquakes had been detected in Iceland since late October, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. In November, with homes and roads being damaged, the authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated Grindavík, a town of more than 3,000 people near the volcano.
More recently, the Meteorological Office warned of a “significant likelihood of a volcanic eruption in coming days.”
The exact location and scale of the eruption have yet to be determined.
The Met Office said a Coast Guard helicopter would be taking off to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption, adding that more information would be provided as soon as it becomes available.
An image posted to the agency’s website showed lava spewing out of cracks in the ground.
The Met Office said the crack in the earth’s surface was about 2.1 miles long and had grown rapidly.
Despite official warnings, people are returning to the area to examine the geologic show closely.
The fissure is getting so large that scientific instruments put out in the rural region to measure and track its development are at risk of being destroyed. The Norwegian Meteorological Agency estimated that 100 to 200 cubic meters of lava is spewing out per second, which is ‘many times more than in previous eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent years.’
Hundreds were seen returning to the region, despite several Icelandic authorities warning them to stay away for their own safety.
The last major Icelandic eruption disrupted air travel in the region. At the present time, air travel has not been impacted, according to Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bjarni Benediktsson.
For those of you who want to delve deeper into the geology, analysis at Volcano Cafe blog provides graphics and information to better understand the tectonic motion occurring in this region of Iceland.
What we are seeing is what I believe to be the clearest locationing of the Reykjanes part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) to date. It was always a fairly amorphous and badly located entity. It was not until this event that we got the data needed to pinpoint this part more accurately.
One of the reasons for it being sort of shy is that it is predominantly strike-slip faulting, with a minute part of spreading. Whereas Iceland is rifting apart at a rate of 2.8cm per year, this part is moving along each other instead.
Rifting is comparatively silent compared to having two tectonic plates rub against each other in a noisy manner.
Update...
https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2023/12/20/gaeti_jafnvel_lokid_um_eda_eftir_helgina/
Possibly all over but the shouting.
It may have pulled a Christmas Carol and done it all in one night.
Hope they’re right...
Here’s to the folks on the peninsula having a Dickens of a good Christmas!
Iceland is the cause of ‘global warming’.
How to stop the volcanoes from erupting?
Maybe throw in rice in the caldera. The rice when cooked will expand and seal the caldera thereby saving the planet.
Just need to raise taxes to buy lots of rice....
Found this bit particularly intriguing...
...The 30 MW double-flash Unit 1 came online in 1978, preceded in 1969 by the 3.2 MW back-pressure wellhead unit at nearby Namafjall, about 7.5 km to the south...
How do they get that to work if the volcanic activity fluctuates?
Darned if I know, so I looked around. :-)
Try here...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/double-flash-power-plant
FWIW, I just find it interesting that the two modern fissure eruptions are taking place within spitting distance of geothermal plants.
And on Krafla...
https://icelandmag.is/article/krafla-fires-one-largest-volcanic-eruptions-icelands-modern-history
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