Tech

Iceland’s ‘child volcano’ continues to be spewing lava rivers, in a tantrum seen from house

userJuly 27, 2023

New drone footage launched Wednesday (July 26) confirms {that a} volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula continues to be going sturdy, taking pictures geysers of molten lava into the sky.

Within the video, a thick ribbon of glowing pink lava may be seen coursing by the charred panorama.

Geologists are calling the volcano — referred to as Litli-Hrútur, or “Little Ram” — Earth’s latest “child” volcano as a result of it was born not too long ago, on July 10. It is the results of an underground eruption opening up on the peninsula, inflicting a 1.7-mile-long (2.7 kilometers) fissure to tear by the panorama about 19 miles (30 km) east of Reykjavík, the nation’s capital.

Previous to the eruption, 1000’s of small earthquakes have been recorded all through the realm, together with one which reached magnitude 4.8. To this point, the volcano has spewed about 437 million cubic ft (12.4 million cubic meters) of lava into the realm, based on an Icelandic Met Workplace assertion launched July 20.

Associated: Swarm of 20,000 earthquakes might make Iceland’s volcanoes erupt

Researchers aren’t overly stunned by the eruption; it is a part of the Fagradalsfjall volcanic space, the situation of eruptions in March 2021 and August 2022. Previous to that, the realm remained dormant for round 800 years.

European House Company (ESA) satellites are at present monitoring the volcano’s exercise, which can also be being livestreamed for individuals to observe the occasion unfold from the protection of their houses. Whereas the brand new eruption has triggered guests to flock to the usually unpopulated space to see the lava and smoke plumes for themselves, consultants warn that the realm is doubtlessly hazardous as a result of poisonous fumes and that “new fissures might open with out warning,” based on an ESA assertion.

“There is a restrict to how excessive the crater can get earlier than it inherently turns into unstable, so I feel if exercise stays excessive, then it is potential we’ll see additional occasions the place sections of the crater wall may collapse,” Laura Wainman, a doctoral scholar within the Faculty of Earth and Atmosphere on the College of Leeds in England who’s learning the volcano on-site, informed the BBC. “It is a very dynamic system however we’ve a lot of individuals engaged on modelling totally different eventualities for the place the lava flows may journey.”