Lava erupting close to Grindavik, Iceland, on 8 February
Iceland Civil Defense/Handout/Anadolu through Getty Images
The movement of magma right into a 15-kilometre-long crack forward of the current volcanic eruptions in Iceland occurred on the highest charge noticed wherever on this planet for this sort of occasion.
“We can have higher rates in very large eruptions,” says Freysteinn Sigmundsson on the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. “But I am not aware of higher estimates of magma flowing into a crack in the surface.”
Sigmundsson is a part of a workforce that has been utilizing ground-based sensors and satellites to watch current 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, an enormous crack a number of kilometres deep and 15 km lengthy fashioned close by. As it opened, among the amassed magma flowed up into it at a charge of 7400 cubic metres per second, the workforce has calculated.
That is round 100 occasions sooner than the magma movement that occurred throughout eruptions in 2021, 2022 and 2023 within the close by Fagradalsfjall space, says Sigmundsson.
The magma within the crack may be visualised as a chunk of paper, he says, as it’s at most 8 metres large. The crack fashioned as a result of Iceland is located on a boundary the place tectonic plates are transferring aside.
On 18 December, a so-called fissure eruption started alongside a part of this characteristic, lasting three days. Another, lasting two days, started on 14 January, with among the lava reaching the evacuated city of Grindavik.
While the lava flows have consumed just a few buildings, cracks within the floor have achieved 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. This implies that heating has been minimize off in some close by areas – most buildings in Iceland depend on geothermal water for heating.
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Source: www.newscientist.com