Month: December 2023


Alas, Poor Grindavík: Iceland Eruption Commences in a Terrible Location

Aerial view of a long volcanic fissure and lava flows at night

The Reykajanes volcanic system just gave Iceland an awful early Christmas present: a brand new eruption in nearly the worst possible spot. Alas, we can’t return it.

Eruptive fissure at night with a small cone growing in the center, lava flows spilling around it.

Aerial view of the eruption taken from a Civil Defense helicopter a few hours after the eruption started. Credit: Almannavarnadeild ríkislögreglustjóra

After a long period of quiet, a seismic swarm began just after 9 pm local time in the darkness of a December night. At around 10:20 pm, the ground split open and the magma that had intruded in a long dike over the last two months emerged in spectacular lava fountains, some reaching hundreds of meters in height. The volume of lava is a staggering 100-200 cubic meters per second, dwarfing the other recent Reykjanes eruptions. The fissures quickly expanded to around 4 kilometers in length, and as of this writing are still opening. (more…)

, December 18, 2023. Natural Disasters, Volcanoes , , , , , , , ,