Photos in article.

“The whole of Iceland 'is on edge' as experts say earthquakes which have been rumbling beneath the surface for days and have torn through a town are a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

More than 700 quakes have been recorded in the southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula since yesterday, and despite them being slightly weaker than in previous days the Fagradalsfjall volcano is still expected to erupt.

Iceland has been shaken by thousands of tremors over the past few days, with a state of emergency declared on Friday and around 4,000 people ordered to leave the fishing community of Grindavik.

Evacuated residents have reported hearing 'unholy sounds' from beneath the ground as they fled, while those allowed to return to collect belongings from their deserted homes were told: 'If you hear sirens, drop everything and get out!'

Huge sinkholes have opened up around the town, and now dramatic aerial footage captured by the Coast Guard shows a chasm running through the centre, with smoke pouring out of the gaping splits as magma rises. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/12746707

The Norse traveled there believing to have found the land of the Aesir but instead found the doors to Helheim.

“Iceland's looming volcano blast is just the beginning of a new era of volcanic eruptions that will last for centuries, with the build-up of magma beneath the coastal town of Grindavik signalling that more is to come, scientists have warned.
……

After 800 years of inactivity, a 2021 eruption marked the start of a new cycle of volcanic activity, and now Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, says that blast may have kicked off 'a new eruptive phase' which could last centuries.

'Time's finally up,' Edward W. Marshall, a researcher at the University of Iceland's Nordic Volcanological Center told Live Science. 'We can get ready for another few hundred years of eruptions on the Reykjanes.' …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/12751583

The population landscape will have to change completely in some areas.

It will be interesting to see what kind of eruption occurs. In 2010 the Eyjafjallajökull eruption lasted 3 months but threw air travel over Europe into disarray. The 2021 eruption at Fagradalsfjall lasted twice as long but was a completely different type that spewed lava rivers but relatively small amounts of ash.

It is believed the imminent eruption at Fagradalsfjall won’t produce the same ash danger as was the case in 2021 as there isn’t the glacial water present that made the 2010 eruption so volatile. Still, even, say 10 years of a runny lava eruption could pump untold tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and resulting in significant temperature drops globally. Kind of throws a wrench into the whole global warming/climate shift nonsense- the leftists will be screaming global cooling instead. I wonder how they will blame oil, or what can be done about it (nothing at all) when food can’t be grown or the snow piles up, and acid rain kills off natural vegetation.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out but a seriously long lived eruption of any type is not good news.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gearhounds,

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Kind of throws a wrench into the whole global warming/climate shift nonsense-

Kind of funny how Mother Nature takes care of herself, ain't it?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Kind of throws a wrench into the whole global warming/climate shift nonsense-

Kind of funny how Mother Nature takes care of herself, ain't it?

I have been saying this for years, one volcano and all the electric car "savings" from western democracies are gone "Poof" just like that.

I am old enough that I was a new teenager when Mt. St Helens erupted in Washington. I remember being astonished how far ash drifted over the lower 48 and the effects on visibility and temps.

All this oil is bad, western countries [only] must suffer to atone, ignore China behind the brown pollution curtain over there, hand wringing is marxist delight.

Climate change, the term alone should bring old school bullying upon anyone who utters it.

I hope Iceland come out of this ok.

Those poor people. I couldn't imagine that many Earthquakes happening in such a short period. Pretty scary.

quote:

Iceland 'on edge' waiting for volcanic eruption as huge cracks open up

I've heard that about those Icelandic girls!

Maybe if Greta would concentrate more on the environment and less on politics, the Norse-Icelandic fire god of volcanoes wouldn’t get so angry. Maybe he could be appeased with her being sacrificed, but that only works with virgins.

https://apnews.com/article/gre...bc67a83ca2a23accb3cb

The eruption began just a few hours ago.
Multiple Youtube lives on it.

Fissure is 3 kilometers long, with flow both north and south, and height of about 30-100 meters.

This one is a guy that just got there a few minutes ago and has a drone up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...nd-volcano-eruption/

A volcanic eruption is underway in southwestern Iceland, with magma breaching the surface north of the town of Grindavik, the country’s meteorological office said Monday evening.

In live-streamed footage of the eruption, plumes of red smoke billow up from scorching white lava — all cast against the pitch-black Icelandic night.

The meteorological office said an “earthquake storm” on the Reykjanes Peninsula preceded the eruption, which began about 10:15 p.m. local time about 2½ miles northeast of Grindavik. Coast guard authorities were investigating.

State meteorologists predicted about midnight that the fissure was about 13,000 feet long, which is many times longer than other eruptions in the area in recent years, according to a Facebook post from the South Iceland Volcanoes and Natural Hazard Group. The initial eruption was also much stronger than recent ones.

The southern end of the fissure is about 8,200 feet from Grindavik, according to the post, and it appears the lava may flow north. But things could quickly change, as the crack has continued to extend at both ends for two hours.

The eruption is endangering power lines, the utility company Landsnet said on Facebook.

Police ordered the nearly 4,000 residents of Grindavik to leave on Nov. 10, after scientific measurements determined that a tunnel of magma had extended underneath the coastal town. Grindavik is not far from Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa resort, which has been closed as a safety precaution.


It isn’t clear how much damage the eruption will cause, Icelandic President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson posted on Facebook. He said his priority is to save human life but authorities would do all they could to protect structures.

Iceland — nicknamed the Land of Fire and Ice — is a hot spot for volcanic activity thanks to its position over tectonic plates that are moving in opposite directions, allowing magma to rise. The country has more than 30 active volcanic systems.

But this was the first time in half a century that a sizable populated area had to be fully evacuated in anticipation of an eruption. The long-gestating threat of eruption raised fears of destructive lava flows, though scientists played down the potential for significant disruption of global travel or decrease in air quality in the Northern Hemisphere.

Magma shifting under Earth’s crust had produced tens of thousands of earthquakes in the area in October and November, damaging buildings and splitting open roads, leaving some impassable.

Evacuations underway in Iceland as possible volcanic eruption looms

Exactly where the volcanic system might erupt had been a matter of uncertainty — and high anxiety. This one was not what people might think of as a stereotypical volcano: a conical mountain spewing lava. It involved a stealthier, more unpredictable subterranean flow of magma, tunneling below the Reykjanes Peninsula, slowing pushing its way toward the surface.

“All volcanoes are kind of humbling, but a volcano that appears whenever it wants to is really humbling,” Robin Andrews, a volcanologist, science writer and author of the book “Super Volcanoes,” said before Monday’s eruption. “We might think we are all mighty and powerful, but we can’t predict what will happen, and, when it does, we just have to deal with it. These fissures can just open up. It’s crazy. It’s like sorcery or something.”

Andrews later described the Iceland eruption fissure as a “beast.”

From Google Earth:

I wonder if that's the same fissure. Seems to have erupted before at some point.

From the Icelandic Met Office:

Updated 19 December at 02:10

According to the latest aerial observations and seismicity, the eruption fissure is expanding to the south. At the time of publication, the southern end of the fissure was close to Sundhnúkur.

The eruption is located on the dyke intrusion that formed in November. The rate of lava discharge during the first two hours of the eruption was thought to be on a scale of hundreds of cubic metres per second, with the largest lava fountains on the northern end of the fissures.

Lava is spreading laterally from either side of the newly opened fissures. From real-time GPS measurements, significant ground deformation has accompanied the opening of the eruption fissures.

Since midnight on 19 December, the level of seismicity at the eruption site has decreased. Additionally, estimates of fissure lengthening suggest that the eruption has decreased in intensity since its onset at 22:17 on 18 December.

Link

A bit more context with the surrounding area, the Blue Lagoon and Svartsengi geothermal powerplant are west of the eruption; Grindavik south. Reykjavik is northeast. It's about 22 miles from the eruption location on Google maps to downtown/center of Reykjavik.

This one was pretty good:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

I wonder if that's the same fissure. Seems to have erupted before at some point.

Like the Hawaiian Islands, Iceland is formed by volcanic activity.

Iceland is located over a magma plume or hotspot that happens to be under the divergent boundaries of the North American and Eurasian Tectonic Plates. As those plates move away from each other, fissures over the hotspot allow magma to surface.

The Hawaiian Islands were/are formed by a hotspot as well. The difference is they are not located at a boundary, but rather in the interior of a single plate, the Pacific Plate. That plate is moving northwest which explains why the Hawaiian Islands are a chain of islands. The magma hotspot that form them is stationary, so as the plate moves over the hotspot, new islands are formed.

At least, this is what my 17yo son tells me. He’s into the science stuff.

Much of the Reykjanes peninsula is covered with aged lava - this has been happening here for 1,000s of years. Most of the volcanoes and ridges on the peninsula generally run NE-SW. The Litli-Hrutur eruption from July is only around 4 miles to the NE. We were in Reykjavik during that time.

I'm sure one eruption starts, then cools and plugs up. More magma comes up and finds the next weakest point and erupts again. Rinse and repeat.

Grindavik's been evacuated - folks are safe. Let's just hope the lava flows avoid the powerplant and the town.

Arriving at Keflavik Navel Air Station in 1970, and at the time of Led Zeppelin's tour, this song has always been a deep resonant chord in my psyche.

And having experienced the eruption of Surtsey and the NAS responding to assist with evacuation of the Icelanders from the town of Vestmannaeyjar in January of 1973, before rotating back to the USA in February, it makes one realize how fast life speeds forward.

Such a memorable time.


And the moment it began...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigmonkey,

Update from Iceland Met Office:

Updated 19 December at 3:00

The intensity of the volcanic eruption, which started about four hours ago, is decreasing. This is evident from seismic and GPS measurements. The fact that the activity is decreasing already is not an indication of how long the eruption will last, but rather that the eruption is reaching a state of equilibrium. This development has been observed at the beginning of all eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent years.

The eruptive fissure is about 4 km long, with the northern end just east of Stóra-Skógfell and the southern end just east of Sundhnúk. The distance from the southern end to the edge of Grindavík is almost 3 km.