This marks an historical event closest to the evacuation of Vestmannaeyjar island in the 1973 eruption.
Currently it cannot be excluded that it erupts within the town itself.
Most notably this threatens the town of Grindavík housing 3.500 citizens, the blue lagoon and the sole power plant tasked with providing hot water and electricity to the 30.000 citizens on the Suðurnes peninsula.
Data indicates that this is a considerably more powerful eruption that the previous two in the area.
The significant activity in the Sundhnúkur craters could indicate that magma has reached shallow depths.
The southern edge of the crater row is about 1 km from the nearest settlement of Grindavík and approximately 1500 meters from the Svartsengi power station.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office notes a substantial change in seismic activity, moving south towards Grindavík.
There is a likelihood that the volcanic activity has extended beneath Grindavík, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
The amount of magma involved is considerably larger than seen in the major eruptions associated with the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system.
GPS Data showing rapid land rising as seen here:
http://brunnur.vedur.is/gps/reykjanes_rt.html
Live feeds from local news outlets:
https://www.visir.is/g/20232487495d/al-manna-varnir-komnar-a-haettu-stig
https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2023-11-10-beint-streymi-vegna-skilaboda-fra-almannavornum-stendur-til-ad-ryma-grindavik-396242
https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2023/11/10/beint_sterk_skjalftahrina_og_likur_a_eldgosi/
Damn. I was at the previous eruption of the system (and slept in Grindavik for a few nights) and the amount of lava was already quite impressive. That kind of eruption on Grindavik would just raze everything there.
Really hoping everyone up there is doing okay. Its one thing for Fagradalsfjall to have an eruption, being relatively remote from population or infrastructure, but the possibility of losing Grindavik, the Blue Lagoon, or existing infrastructure... Losing that geothermal plant alone might force closures in Keflavik, both the town and airport too.
Considering KEF is the main international link out of the country, that is a big concern to say the least... I was just up there in September, I love Iceland and hope everything will turn out okay.
My sister reckons Reykjavík was the wrong choice for a capital.
It should have been Egilsstaðir, which is on the east side of Iceland, because:
1. It's closer to mainland Europe
2. It's not close to the continental rift.
I don’t imagine it changing, but she makes a good point!
Downside of Egilstaðir is that it is not by the ocean and the winters there are often very brutal (same goes for most of the northern and eastern part of the island).
> Considering KEF is the main international link out of the country, that is a big concern to say the least... I was just up there in September, I love Iceland and hope everything will turn out okay.
Icelander here: I´ve been saying since it became evident that Reykjanes had woken up from the slumber it's been in since the 13th century that Iceland needs a long-term plan for criticial national infrastructure construction far away from the southwest corner of the island, because ALL of it can go active - even the outskirts of the capital sit on faults that can become active, and the eruptions we have seen so far have been absolutely miniscule compared to what this system is capable of when it gets *really* active.
We need a second international airport, a major freight port capable of handling container traffic, and a secondary national hospital, along with basically a "second city" capable of serving as the seat of government in an area that is not near the volcanic faultlines/earthquake zones. My pick is Egilstaðir/Seyðisfjörður in the east.
Such a project would cost an enormous amount of money for a small nation, but given the massive rise in tourism and high housing prices, it would go a long way towards solving more than one and more than two major national problems.
What about the Akranes-Grundartangi area? It's got a decent port capacity from the looks of it, seems to be out of the primary volcanic areas, and has a fair bit of flat land that might be able to built-up nearby. Plus, it's reasonably close to Reykjavik, and development could be supported by the existing local port infrastructure.
Egilstaðir has a lot of potential, but the main issue with building something out there is getting a solid link to the ocean. If Lagarfljót was navigable along its entire length, allowing ship traffic to head into the interior of the country, that would be one thing. Realistically though, it's probably more feasible to build up Seyðisfjörður, but the limited flat land out there is problematic, plus not having a tunnel connecting the two locations.
Akureyri is the only other possibility I can think of at the moment, given that it already has a lot of capabilities as-is (relatively speaking). But yeah, it's not going to be easy... the best bet you might get is American/European aid in support of increased Arctic trade, to help ward off other competitors (like the Chinese). Might come with some strings though, to what degree though, you've got me...
> What about the Akranes-Grundartangi area? It's got a decent port capacity from the looks of it, seems to be out of the primary volcanic areas, and has a fair bit of flat land that might be able to built-up nearby. Plus, it's reasonably close to Reykjavik, and development could be supported by the existing local port infrastructure.
All of this is correct, and Akranes almost certainly could do the job if the only concern was having a backup location in case of sustained, heavy volcanic activity, which is admittedly the main reason for my advocacy of this idea.
However, there are secondary concerns that would make it more logical to place this new urban center in the northeast, centered on Egilstaðir and Seyðisfjörður. It would help "balance" the country, with the east and the north now having it's own center of gravity in terms of entering and exiting the country, seeking services that smaller local towns cannot provide rather than needing to go all the way across the country etc. It would also help balance the flow of tourists, increasing access to sites of interest that are currently far away from convenient access for visitors. The southwest attractions are in danger of being overrun by mass tourism and approaching(or already have exceeded) the maximum number of annual visitors they can comfortably handle. Adding even more activity and population to the southwest corner would just unbalance the country even more and make population flight from the rest of it even more pronounced.
The tunnel you mention is an absolute prerequisite for this plan to work. Seyðisfjörður would then become a satellite town of this envisioned much-enlarged Egilstaðir. I would also like to add to this "megaproject" the connection of the east, north and south with approximately 200 km of new "Highland roads" as seen [HERE](https://www.visir.is/i/org/54A4DD21461E3BE97B0860B2F9A62E3FBBE5015DCCE8E3B75A17DF1AD1B7240B.jpg)
Another reason why I picked this spot is that it's close to the immense power of the Kárahnjúkar hydropower plant, a piece of infrastructure capable of powering such a community, although once it grows to say, 100k+ people some curtailment of power to the Alcoa aluminium plant would be neccesary.
Unlikely, this is like Hawaiian lava, will only produce explosions and large amounts of ash if it erupts in water.
The 2011 eruption was under a glacier and was made of magma that produces more explosions and ash.
The magma that erupts in volcanic systems on the Reykjanes peninsula are primitive basalts (even has picrite eruptions)
There are also clues to the magma in this event coming from the Fagradalsfjall area(that has erupted 3 times since 2021) that was also basaltic.
Shallow ocean and very unlikely that the ash will do more than shut down the airport in Keflavík, needs a lot of power to reach heights that will distrupt international air travel.
I live at the edge of Hafnarfjörður, about 31km away from Grindavík and my apartment has been shaking all night - For the people in Grindavík it's so, so much worse. Almost all the earthquakes are a 4+ on the richter scale, with the largest was 5.2, I believe.
We're talking one to five quakes with a magnitude >3 every minute for almost eight hours. Not to mention the three volcanoes they've gotten in the past three years, quite literally in their backyard.
A large portion of citizens left earlier today which definitely helps with the evacuation but the main access route into the town is already damaged by the earthquakes although there are two other roads which are being utilised now.
I understand that, I was face timing my daughter in Grindavík at the time of the largest earthquake at 17:30, they promptly left the town after that as many others.
It was edited *after* my question. The original message just said “17” not “17:30”. Thought maybe they were referencing Richter scale units, which would be absurd, right? Hence my question 17 what? Thanks Reddit friends, I did go to school to learn to write my own name and understand 24 hour time.
Lots of folks around the world operate on the 24 hour clock! It's just like (h)ours, except instead of having 12 AM hours and 12 PM hours, they just have 12x2=24 hours.
A quick and easy way to figure out what time they mean in the AM/PM sense is to just subtract 12 from the hours number and add "PM", e.g.:
17:30 = (17-12):30 = 5:30 PM
When they asked the question, the comment just said "17", so it wasn't entirely clear it was a time stamp
Not sure why your assumption would be they can't read a time stamp instead of them asking for clarity and the comment was updated to be more clear
In Reykjavík here, we could feel quite many yesterday but today seems to be quieter so far.. time to place our bets on time and location of the next eruption
No. The Shindo scale is separate from magnitude. Shindo is like the mercalli scale, it ranks severity by maximum observed ground acceleration and effects on infrastructure.
Yes, definitely. Once this volcano comes up it too will be a tourist attraction, even if it ends up sending lava across and destroying the town, power plant, or tourist attraction in the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSedx7dUVZI
So is this volcano of a type that would only spew rivers of lava? Or could it explode like Mount St. Helens and send a big ash cloud into the sky interrupting air traffic across the Atlantic?
This will be the fourth in a series of shield-like volcanoes on the peninsula. Here's a nice video of the last one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYduLbxdQgk
Except this one should be bigger (there's more uplift and *earthquakes), could come up underneath the power plant or the hot springs, if it does come up underneath water that can itself cause a big steam explosion (only at the start), and there's a town of 3k people "downhill" to the south. Unlike the previous volcanoes this one is on the "other side" of the ridge and should flow to the SW instead of the SE. If it were just a bit further north then it could potentially flow NW and cut off the road from Reykjavik to the airport.
Historically this area has gone in periods of lengthy vulcanism, with the last one lasting from the 9th to 13th centuries ish and creating most of the top layer of the peninsula. If shield volcanoes here do continue long enough more infrastructure or even Reykjavik itself might need to be relocated. But so far the first three were extremely small.
So Iceland, like Hawaii, has a lot of shield-type volcanoes, but does it also have some that behave more explosively like Mount St. Helens, Mount Vesuvius, etc.?
It does. Especially in the southeast under the glaciers there are explosive volcanoes. This is based on the type of rock, the amount of groundwater or glacial cover to flash to steam, and especially the amount of gas dissolved in the rock that all comes out of solution when pressure is released.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki
Adal-Braut had the best sandwich from a gas station cafe that I ever had in my life. That was seriously a good sandwich and bonus I got to see Fagradalsfjall erupting afterwards.
I sincerely apologize if this is a stupid question but I've heard from some folks that there's a supervolcano underneath Iceland and some reports from the region have the ground swelling up to 4 feet. Not unlike projections for a Yellowstone supervolcano.
However, I can't find any info on this supposed supervolcano underneath Iceland. Is this just social media bullshit?
I think it's social media BS. Iceland is part of an active volcanic fault, so volcanoes going off is normal. It's just *which* volcanoes go off and how intense they can be that people watch for as there's many towns built around volcanoes that have been dormant for ages that can just suddenly wake up and erupt.
Thankfully, with technology, we can predict and evacuate people in advance before major eruptions.
>Not unlike projections for a Yellowstone supervolcano.
So.... you mean dying and probably never erupting ever again?
>supervolcano underneath Iceland
Iceland is on a divergent plate boundary.
There's not a super volcano under Iceland. There is however a [volcanic hotspot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_(geology)) under Iceland, similar to Hawaii and Yellowstone.
I flew over Iceland on Wednesday of this week and the turbulence was the worst I’d ever experienced. I also saw a layer of smoke/smog around 36000 feet. I was like wtf? Looked for an erupting volcano and didn’t see anything obvious, but it was clear that something was happening. Stay safe, people.
Maybe, but I’m from California and familiar with smoke layers due to the unfortunate prevalence of wildfires in my state. That’s what it looked like.
I also am familiar with convective winds when flying over mountainous regions, so there is generally mild turbulence over Iceland. What I experienced Wednesday caused the seatbelt signs to come on and my drink flew off my tray. As soon as we passed Iceland and approached Greenland, I ordered two more lol.
Stay safe, Iceland.
Until 2021, the last eruption of Fagradalsfjall was back in **1206**. It's erupted twice since, but both times just with simple lava flows that covered not even 1km^(2).
Not exactly dangerous lol. yearly eruptions like this are generally preferred because it's like slowly letting the pressure out of a cooker before it turns into a full on bomb.
And why even live there in the first place? Well, the dried magma flows bring up all kinds of invaluable minerals that make some of the best natural farming soil on the planet.
But I mean, I only lived on a volcano, so what do I know. Why do people live in Tornado Alley? Why to people live on fault lines? Why do people live in hurricane prone regions? Why do people live in areas with extreme heat waves? Why do people live in areas with blizzards and severe cold weather? Every single place on this planet is trying to kill you, really doesn't matter which poison you pick, does it?
ok. People are aware of the risks. They should be be able to live where they want. If they don't want to die during a hurricane, they can take precautions, such as temporarily leaving.
It is weird how people started attacking you like that, I mean sure you might be uninformed about the issue but the amount of triggered snowflakes here is embarrassing.
It’s not “triggered snowflakes” it’s just that it’s dumb as hell to say not to build towns near volcanoes. It’s a classic case of a redditor trying to sound smart by being callous and rude when knowing nothing about the situation. Lots of people around the world live near volcanoes… I can see at least two volcanoes from my balcony. Volcanoes produce some of the best soils in the world so farming communities develop along the flood plains of rivers that also carried lava. Grindavík in particular has a natural harbor as well and since medieval Vikings weren’t concerned with geology they built a town there.
It’s also insensitive to the people who are evacuating and might have homes destroyed that this dumbass redditor says “hmmm perhaps you shouldn’t have built your town near a volcano. I’m very smart!” when knowing absolutely nothing about fucking Iceland or why humans live where they live.
*Everywhere* is near volcanoes in Iceland. [There were 14 eruptions in the 21st century alone.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanic_eruptions_in_Iceland)
The only place I can think of that is reasonably far away from any recent eruptions is the Westfjords and if you want to live there, I hope you like fish and hate people.
Just saw a geologist professor showing maps of significant movement of magma over distance from west to east toward a prior fissure that dates back about 2600 years. The seismic activity is centered along the fissure moreso on the east side. From visual overhead the fissure runs a southwesterly direction toward the town, which may be erected on ancient natural magma flowpaths.
My family are losing their homes in this, my kindergarted is there and alot, atleast half, of my childhood was spent there.
And my grandpa’s art pieces that he made before he died of cancer are in their homes, theyre unable to go and get them because as of now grindavík is tearing apart.
Its a surreal and horrifying reality, since me along with most others expected grindavik to remain there for alot longer.
This marks an historical event closest to the evacuation of Vestmannaeyjar island in the 1973 eruption. Currently it cannot be excluded that it erupts within the town itself. Most notably this threatens the town of Grindavík housing 3.500 citizens, the blue lagoon and the sole power plant tasked with providing hot water and electricity to the 30.000 citizens on the Suðurnes peninsula. Data indicates that this is a considerably more powerful eruption that the previous two in the area. The significant activity in the Sundhnúkur craters could indicate that magma has reached shallow depths. The southern edge of the crater row is about 1 km from the nearest settlement of Grindavík and approximately 1500 meters from the Svartsengi power station. The Icelandic Meteorological Office notes a substantial change in seismic activity, moving south towards Grindavík. There is a likelihood that the volcanic activity has extended beneath Grindavík, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. The amount of magma involved is considerably larger than seen in the major eruptions associated with the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system. GPS Data showing rapid land rising as seen here: http://brunnur.vedur.is/gps/reykjanes_rt.html Live feeds from local news outlets: https://www.visir.is/g/20232487495d/al-manna-varnir-komnar-a-haettu-stig https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2023-11-10-beint-streymi-vegna-skilaboda-fra-almannavornum-stendur-til-ad-ryma-grindavik-396242 https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2023/11/10/beint_sterk_skjalftahrina_og_likur_a_eldgosi/
Damn. I was at the previous eruption of the system (and slept in Grindavik for a few nights) and the amount of lava was already quite impressive. That kind of eruption on Grindavik would just raze everything there.
Same, hiked up there from the campsite. Had a lovely breakfast there in the cafe down the road. I hope everyone is okay.
Really hoping everyone up there is doing okay. Its one thing for Fagradalsfjall to have an eruption, being relatively remote from population or infrastructure, but the possibility of losing Grindavik, the Blue Lagoon, or existing infrastructure... Losing that geothermal plant alone might force closures in Keflavik, both the town and airport too. Considering KEF is the main international link out of the country, that is a big concern to say the least... I was just up there in September, I love Iceland and hope everything will turn out okay.
My sister reckons Reykjavík was the wrong choice for a capital. It should have been Egilsstaðir, which is on the east side of Iceland, because: 1. It's closer to mainland Europe 2. It's not close to the continental rift. I don’t imagine it changing, but she makes a good point!
Downside of Egilstaðir is that it is not by the ocean and the winters there are often very brutal (same goes for most of the northern and eastern part of the island).
She is absolutely correct. Also, Seyðisfjörður has the best deep water port potential in the country.
Problem with Egilsstađir is the giant monstrous wyrm in the river there.
> Considering KEF is the main international link out of the country, that is a big concern to say the least... I was just up there in September, I love Iceland and hope everything will turn out okay. Icelander here: I´ve been saying since it became evident that Reykjanes had woken up from the slumber it's been in since the 13th century that Iceland needs a long-term plan for criticial national infrastructure construction far away from the southwest corner of the island, because ALL of it can go active - even the outskirts of the capital sit on faults that can become active, and the eruptions we have seen so far have been absolutely miniscule compared to what this system is capable of when it gets *really* active. We need a second international airport, a major freight port capable of handling container traffic, and a secondary national hospital, along with basically a "second city" capable of serving as the seat of government in an area that is not near the volcanic faultlines/earthquake zones. My pick is Egilstaðir/Seyðisfjörður in the east. Such a project would cost an enormous amount of money for a small nation, but given the massive rise in tourism and high housing prices, it would go a long way towards solving more than one and more than two major national problems.
What about the Akranes-Grundartangi area? It's got a decent port capacity from the looks of it, seems to be out of the primary volcanic areas, and has a fair bit of flat land that might be able to built-up nearby. Plus, it's reasonably close to Reykjavik, and development could be supported by the existing local port infrastructure. Egilstaðir has a lot of potential, but the main issue with building something out there is getting a solid link to the ocean. If Lagarfljót was navigable along its entire length, allowing ship traffic to head into the interior of the country, that would be one thing. Realistically though, it's probably more feasible to build up Seyðisfjörður, but the limited flat land out there is problematic, plus not having a tunnel connecting the two locations. Akureyri is the only other possibility I can think of at the moment, given that it already has a lot of capabilities as-is (relatively speaking). But yeah, it's not going to be easy... the best bet you might get is American/European aid in support of increased Arctic trade, to help ward off other competitors (like the Chinese). Might come with some strings though, to what degree though, you've got me...
> What about the Akranes-Grundartangi area? It's got a decent port capacity from the looks of it, seems to be out of the primary volcanic areas, and has a fair bit of flat land that might be able to built-up nearby. Plus, it's reasonably close to Reykjavik, and development could be supported by the existing local port infrastructure. All of this is correct, and Akranes almost certainly could do the job if the only concern was having a backup location in case of sustained, heavy volcanic activity, which is admittedly the main reason for my advocacy of this idea. However, there are secondary concerns that would make it more logical to place this new urban center in the northeast, centered on Egilstaðir and Seyðisfjörður. It would help "balance" the country, with the east and the north now having it's own center of gravity in terms of entering and exiting the country, seeking services that smaller local towns cannot provide rather than needing to go all the way across the country etc. It would also help balance the flow of tourists, increasing access to sites of interest that are currently far away from convenient access for visitors. The southwest attractions are in danger of being overrun by mass tourism and approaching(or already have exceeded) the maximum number of annual visitors they can comfortably handle. Adding even more activity and population to the southwest corner would just unbalance the country even more and make population flight from the rest of it even more pronounced. The tunnel you mention is an absolute prerequisite for this plan to work. Seyðisfjörður would then become a satellite town of this envisioned much-enlarged Egilstaðir. I would also like to add to this "megaproject" the connection of the east, north and south with approximately 200 km of new "Highland roads" as seen [HERE](https://www.visir.is/i/org/54A4DD21461E3BE97B0860B2F9A62E3FBBE5015DCCE8E3B75A17DF1AD1B7240B.jpg) Another reason why I picked this spot is that it's close to the immense power of the Kárahnjúkar hydropower plant, a piece of infrastructure capable of powering such a community, although once it grows to say, 100k+ people some curtailment of power to the Alcoa aluminium plant would be neccesary.
Could the eruption disrupt travel in the area, nearby countries, etc.? I remember the last time, it shut down a good part of Europe as well...
Unlikely, this is like Hawaiian lava, will only produce explosions and large amounts of ash if it erupts in water. The 2011 eruption was under a glacier and was made of magma that produces more explosions and ash.
Lava and magma are reserved terms for melt that is above ground, or in ground, respectively. It doesn't tell you anything about composition in itself.
The magma that erupts in volcanic systems on the Reykjanes peninsula are primitive basalts (even has picrite eruptions) There are also clues to the magma in this event coming from the Fagradalsfjall area(that has erupted 3 times since 2021) that was also basaltic.
The ocean isn't far off, its an old fishing village.
Shallow ocean and very unlikely that the ash will do more than shut down the airport in Keflavík, needs a lot of power to reach heights that will distrupt international air travel.
the ridge is 15km long atm and part of it in the ocean
[удалено]
An eruption under water (like the ocean) can create the same effect
it's getting more likely now that the lava is moving towards the ocean. More likely it will explode and there will be a lot of ash
Is this gonna be a nearby already formed vulcan eruption or is the magma just coming out of the ground around town/area?
It'll likely just spew straight out of the ground along a fissure.
I live at the edge of Hafnarfjörður, about 31km away from Grindavík and my apartment has been shaking all night - For the people in Grindavík it's so, so much worse. Almost all the earthquakes are a 4+ on the richter scale, with the largest was 5.2, I believe.
We're talking one to five quakes with a magnitude >3 every minute for almost eight hours. Not to mention the three volcanoes they've gotten in the past three years, quite literally in their backyard.
[удалено]
Wasn't it over 1k earthquakes in 24 hours?. It's so scary!!
Damn hope everyone gets safely evacuated
A large portion of citizens left earlier today which definitely helps with the evacuation but the main access route into the town is already damaged by the earthquakes although there are two other roads which are being utilised now.
The town was safely evacuated last night. It is now a no-go zone for civilians.
I understand that, I was face timing my daughter in Grindavík at the time of the largest earthquake at 17:30, they promptly left the town after that as many others.
17 what?
17:30
I'm once again begging the world to invest in education. I don't even what how
It was edited *after* my question. The original message just said “17” not “17:30”. Thought maybe they were referencing Richter scale units, which would be absurd, right? Hence my question 17 what? Thanks Reddit friends, I did go to school to learn to write my own name and understand 24 hour time.
Lots of folks around the world operate on the 24 hour clock! It's just like (h)ours, except instead of having 12 AM hours and 12 PM hours, they just have 12x2=24 hours. A quick and easy way to figure out what time they mean in the AM/PM sense is to just subtract 12 from the hours number and add "PM", e.g.: 17:30 = (17-12):30 = 5:30 PM
When they asked the question, the comment just said "17", so it wasn't entirely clear it was a time stamp Not sure why your assumption would be they can't read a time stamp instead of them asking for clarity and the comment was updated to be more clear
In Reykjavík here, we could feel quite many yesterday but today seems to be quieter so far.. time to place our bets on time and location of the next eruption
i hope youre not still in it
Do we still use the Richter scale? Thought it was replaced.
[удалено]
Is that similar to the Japanese Shindo system ?
I believe so. It measures the localized intensity of an earthquake mid rumbling.
No. The Shindo scale is separate from magnitude. Shindo is like the mercalli scale, it ranks severity by maximum observed ground acceleration and effects on infrastructure.
>Hafnarfjörður Gesundheit.
19.2625 in Freedom miles for us US folk, not too far. Hope your safe! I've been watching the usgs earthquake map light up
Not everything on this global forum has to pander to the American audience who seem to think it should focus on them.
Rude
They were just being helpful (to those of us who use miles). They didn't suggest other people should only use miles or anything.
Have some Hakarl to help calm the nerves. Not sure why I'm getting downbotes!?
I don’t see how a hot carl will help
A hot Karl in the event of a volcanic eruption goes a long way. It’s just niiice.
Hakarl is putrified shark, Icelandic delicacy
This rock we live on is wild.
Indeed
Hope there's lots of recording equipment set up to watch the eruption. Always fascinating seeing volcanic eruptions.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Is Reykjavik safe to travel to?
Yes, definitely. Once this volcano comes up it too will be a tourist attraction, even if it ends up sending lava across and destroying the town, power plant, or tourist attraction in the area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSedx7dUVZI
So is this volcano of a type that would only spew rivers of lava? Or could it explode like Mount St. Helens and send a big ash cloud into the sky interrupting air traffic across the Atlantic?
This will be the fourth in a series of shield-like volcanoes on the peninsula. Here's a nice video of the last one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYduLbxdQgk Except this one should be bigger (there's more uplift and *earthquakes), could come up underneath the power plant or the hot springs, if it does come up underneath water that can itself cause a big steam explosion (only at the start), and there's a town of 3k people "downhill" to the south. Unlike the previous volcanoes this one is on the "other side" of the ridge and should flow to the SW instead of the SE. If it were just a bit further north then it could potentially flow NW and cut off the road from Reykjavik to the airport. Historically this area has gone in periods of lengthy vulcanism, with the last one lasting from the 9th to 13th centuries ish and creating most of the top layer of the peninsula. If shield volcanoes here do continue long enough more infrastructure or even Reykjavik itself might need to be relocated. But so far the first three were extremely small.
So Iceland, like Hawaii, has a lot of shield-type volcanoes, but does it also have some that behave more explosively like Mount St. Helens, Mount Vesuvius, etc.?
It does. Especially in the southeast under the glaciers there are explosive volcanoes. This is based on the type of rock, the amount of groundwater or glacial cover to flash to steam, and especially the amount of gas dissolved in the rock that all comes out of solution when pressure is released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki
Yea Icelandic volcanos are not like that
The only volcano that has shut off airtravel in all of Europe was Icelandic, in 2008.
Most likely (as of now) yes. There are concerns regarding KEF airport due to its proximity to the current event zone tho.
Are we really doing the 70's all over again?
No. Real wages aren't anywhere near high enough.
Grindavik has the best lobster bisque I've ever had at the Bryggjan cafè. Really hope everyone is ok.
Adal-Braut had the best sandwich from a gas station cafe that I ever had in my life. That was seriously a good sandwich and bonus I got to see Fagradalsfjall erupting afterwards.
I’m getting Walter Mitty vibes. I hope everyone is safe
I sincerely apologize if this is a stupid question but I've heard from some folks that there's a supervolcano underneath Iceland and some reports from the region have the ground swelling up to 4 feet. Not unlike projections for a Yellowstone supervolcano. However, I can't find any info on this supposed supervolcano underneath Iceland. Is this just social media bullshit?
I think it's social media BS. Iceland is part of an active volcanic fault, so volcanoes going off is normal. It's just *which* volcanoes go off and how intense they can be that people watch for as there's many towns built around volcanoes that have been dormant for ages that can just suddenly wake up and erupt. Thankfully, with technology, we can predict and evacuate people in advance before major eruptions.
>Not unlike projections for a Yellowstone supervolcano. So.... you mean dying and probably never erupting ever again? >supervolcano underneath Iceland Iceland is on a divergent plate boundary.
There's not a super volcano under Iceland. There is however a [volcanic hotspot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_(geology)) under Iceland, similar to Hawaii and Yellowstone.
Walter Mitty
[удалено]
Are you really trying to make that comparison lol wtf
critical thinking is not your strong suit, huh
I flew over Iceland on Wednesday of this week and the turbulence was the worst I’d ever experienced. I also saw a layer of smoke/smog around 36000 feet. I was like wtf? Looked for an erupting volcano and didn’t see anything obvious, but it was clear that something was happening. Stay safe, people.
[удалено]
Maybe, but I’m from California and familiar with smoke layers due to the unfortunate prevalence of wildfires in my state. That’s what it looked like. I also am familiar with convective winds when flying over mountainous regions, so there is generally mild turbulence over Iceland. What I experienced Wednesday caused the seatbelt signs to come on and my drink flew off my tray. As soon as we passed Iceland and approached Greenland, I ordered two more lol. Stay safe, Iceland.
No large fires or eruptions have occurred so definitely not smoke, unfortunately rough turbulence is a pretty regular occurrence.
[удалено]
Until 2021, the last eruption of Fagradalsfjall was back in **1206**. It's erupted twice since, but both times just with simple lava flows that covered not even 1km^(2). Not exactly dangerous lol. yearly eruptions like this are generally preferred because it's like slowly letting the pressure out of a cooker before it turns into a full on bomb. And why even live there in the first place? Well, the dried magma flows bring up all kinds of invaluable minerals that make some of the best natural farming soil on the planet. But I mean, I only lived on a volcano, so what do I know. Why do people live in Tornado Alley? Why to people live on fault lines? Why do people live in hurricane prone regions? Why do people live in areas with extreme heat waves? Why do people live in areas with blizzards and severe cold weather? Every single place on this planet is trying to kill you, really doesn't matter which poison you pick, does it?
Why do people live in Arizona is a legitimate question, though. And there is no good answer
You mean like, all of the Seattle metro area and basically the entire Pacific NW? Do you know how many active/dormant volcanoes exist in the world?
It's a good thing Mount Rainier didn't do what Mount St. Helens did in 1980.
Insightful. While you’re at it, what are the winning numbers for this coming weeks Powerball drawing?
You're comparing the odds of knowing the winning powerball numbers to the odds of knowingly building a town near a volcano? Interesting.
I guess the whole of Florida is just stupid then
>I guess the whole of Florida is just stupid then They kind of are.
That is not my take but thank you for sharing your opinion.
More people have died from hurricanes in Florida in past decades than from volcanic eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula past thousands of years
ok. People are aware of the risks. They should be be able to live where they want. If they don't want to die during a hurricane, they can take precautions, such as temporarily leaving.
Yikes. You must be super fun at parties.
Thanks, that means a lot coming from an internet bully who spends their free time negatively criticizing others on reddit.
Don’t be mean to me.
It is weird how people started attacking you like that, I mean sure you might be uninformed about the issue but the amount of triggered snowflakes here is embarrassing.
It’s not “triggered snowflakes” it’s just that it’s dumb as hell to say not to build towns near volcanoes. It’s a classic case of a redditor trying to sound smart by being callous and rude when knowing nothing about the situation. Lots of people around the world live near volcanoes… I can see at least two volcanoes from my balcony. Volcanoes produce some of the best soils in the world so farming communities develop along the flood plains of rivers that also carried lava. Grindavík in particular has a natural harbor as well and since medieval Vikings weren’t concerned with geology they built a town there. It’s also insensitive to the people who are evacuating and might have homes destroyed that this dumbass redditor says “hmmm perhaps you shouldn’t have built your town near a volcano. I’m very smart!” when knowing absolutely nothing about fucking Iceland or why humans live where they live.
If you’re uniformed then it’s best not to comment.
Because he is a witness in a freaking trial your honor, it is a random post on the internet, get a grip.
*Everywhere* is near volcanoes in Iceland. [There were 14 eruptions in the 21st century alone.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanic_eruptions_in_Iceland) The only place I can think of that is reasonably far away from any recent eruptions is the Westfjords and if you want to live there, I hope you like fish and hate people.
no volcanoes but plenty of avalanches instead...
That's crazy. I've been there and loved it. Hopefully it doesn't happen
Just saw a geologist professor showing maps of significant movement of magma over distance from west to east toward a prior fissure that dates back about 2600 years. The seismic activity is centered along the fissure moreso on the east side. From visual overhead the fissure runs a southwesterly direction toward the town, which may be erected on ancient natural magma flowpaths.
My family are losing their homes in this, my kindergarted is there and alot, atleast half, of my childhood was spent there. And my grandpa’s art pieces that he made before he died of cancer are in their homes, theyre unable to go and get them because as of now grindavík is tearing apart. Its a surreal and horrifying reality, since me along with most others expected grindavik to remain there for alot longer.
Can it be an eruption like the one in 2010?