Iceland Volcano Erupts, Missing Fishing Town of Grindavik
Editor
19 December 2023 22:38 WIB
The eruption opened a 4 km (2.5 mile) fissure. But at its southernmost point the crack was still 3 km away from Grindavik, Iceland's Meteorological Office said.
"The eruption is taking place north of the watershed, so lava does not flow towards Grindavik," geologist Bjorn Oddson told public broadcaster RUV.
Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, among the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hot spot because the two plates move in opposite directions.
The eruption is happening about 30 km from Reykjavik. Keflavik International Airport is somewhat nearer but remains open. The Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa popular with tourists, has been largely closed since the seismic activity was detected.
"It could potentially go on for several months, it could also just stop later today or tomorrow," said Halldor Geirson, an associate professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland.
Lava flows had decreased from 200-250 cubic meters per second in the first two hours of the eruption to around a quarter of that by Tuesday morning.
Geirson said most of the lava flowing into an area where there was little infrastructure. But that could still change.
"There is still a threat to Grindavik, for sure. Now the lava is flowing mostly to the north, but it depends on the topography and where the openings are," he said.
FLIGHT IMPACT UNLIKELY
In 2010, ash clouds from eruptions at the Eyafjallajokull volcano in the south of Iceland spread over large parts of Europe, grounding some 100,000 flights in Europe and beyond, and forcing hundreds of Icelanders to evacuate their homes.
Weather forecasting service AccuWeather said the current eruption was very different from the one at Eyafjallajokull and that preliminary information suggested it would not have a major impact on air travel.
"If little to no volcanic ash is lofted into the atmosphere, there may be no impact to aviation," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said.
The 2010 impact on air travel was largely caused by the interaction of magma with the melting water from a glacier.
"This is a different case," said Luca D'Auria, director of the Volcano Monitoring Area of the Instituto Volcanologico de Canarias in Spain's Canary Islands, another volcanic hot spot.
"The only possibility that the eruption would be more explosive and therefore generate ash, volcanic ash, which can pose a problem for the aviation, would be a propagation southward in the sea."
REUTERS
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