Iceland volcano still spewing lava, one month on

(Iceland): Orange lava bubbles and pops, occasionally spewing large fountains from a volcano that has been erupting for a month in Iceland, the second-longest eruption since the region’s volcanic activity reawakened in March 2021.

“It’s continuing at a pretty stable rate at the moment and we don’t see any real signs that it will end in the near future,” Benedikt Ofeigsson, geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), said.

On March 16, lava burst out of a crack in the ground at Sundhnukagigar on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland and it has been flowing ever since.

The volcano was pumping out some 3.6 cubic metres of lava per second in the most recent measurements taken on April 9, accor- ding to the IMO.

Other eruptions in the same region in December, January and February – preceded by the evacuation of 4,000 residents in the nearby town of Grindavik in November – likely created favourable conditions for a lasting eruption.

“Now there is an open channel to the surface,” Ofeigsson said.

Magma is making its way through the Earth’s upper crust from a depth of at least 10km.

This scenario is similar to the first eruption in the region, near Mount Fagradalsfjall in March 2021, which lasted six months.

By contrast, the other eruptions in the past few months have only lasted a few days.

The ground has been observed to be rising – so-called inflation – in the nearby area of Svartsengi, home to a geothermal plant providing electricity and water to 30,000 people on the peninsula.

It suggests that “all the magma coming from this depth doesn’t have the capacity to go straight to the surface (and) is partly stored in this magma storage in Svartsengi”, Ofeigsson said.