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| Icelandic volcano: ‘Fire fountains burst into the air. It is a truly awesome sight’ | Icelandic volcano: ‘Fire fountains burst into the air. It is a truly awesome sight’ |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| It’s been an explosive few weeks in Iceland. In the Holuhraun valley, in the centre of the country, the Earth’s crust has been wrenched apart and molten rock spewed 130 metres into the sky. The fissure has produced a larger area of lava than any volcano on Iceland in a century – and could potentially continue erupting for more than a year, “so even as an Icelandic volcano, it’s a big one,” says Professor Simon Redfern from Cambridge University. | |
| Those who remember the disruptions and delays to air travel of four years ago will no doubt be reaching for their passports with apprehension – and well they might. “It’s not actually a volcano at the moment – it’s a fissure eruption – which is good, it’s relatively safe,” says Redfern. “But there is the threat of Bardarbunga going, and with the vast volume of magma beneath it, it’s potentially bigger than the 2010 volcano [Eyjafjallajökull].” | Those who remember the disruptions and delays to air travel of four years ago will no doubt be reaching for their passports with apprehension – and well they might. “It’s not actually a volcano at the moment – it’s a fissure eruption – which is good, it’s relatively safe,” says Redfern. “But there is the threat of Bardarbunga going, and with the vast volume of magma beneath it, it’s potentially bigger than the 2010 volcano [Eyjafjallajökull].” |
| Redfern is part of a team of earth scientists who have been monitoring the movement of magma beneath the region since 2006, and who were out there when the eruption began. He says the threat from Bardarbunga is two-fold, as it sits under 850 metres of glacial ice. “If it explodes under ice the magma cools very quickly, and more importantly the water in the ice turns to steam. So it’s actually the steam exploding within the magma, that then turns this from being a pile of rock into a big plume of ash,” he says. “It would also pose a significant threat to life in the vicinity because the glacier could melt and that would create a huge melt flood.” | Redfern is part of a team of earth scientists who have been monitoring the movement of magma beneath the region since 2006, and who were out there when the eruption began. He says the threat from Bardarbunga is two-fold, as it sits under 850 metres of glacial ice. “If it explodes under ice the magma cools very quickly, and more importantly the water in the ice turns to steam. So it’s actually the steam exploding within the magma, that then turns this from being a pile of rock into a big plume of ash,” he says. “It would also pose a significant threat to life in the vicinity because the glacier could melt and that would create a huge melt flood.” |
| Despite the danger, says Redfern, it is hard not to be blown away by Holuhraun’s breathtaking display. “I described it as awesome in the true meaning of the word. It was something that I experienced with all my senses. You see fire fountains bursting into the air, you smell sulphur from the gases, hear the sound like a jet engine of the fountaining, and the lava flow that crackles like breaking glass, and feel the heat from the whole thing as well. It’s a phenomenal force of nature.” | Despite the danger, says Redfern, it is hard not to be blown away by Holuhraun’s breathtaking display. “I described it as awesome in the true meaning of the word. It was something that I experienced with all my senses. You see fire fountains bursting into the air, you smell sulphur from the gases, hear the sound like a jet engine of the fountaining, and the lava flow that crackles like breaking glass, and feel the heat from the whole thing as well. It’s a phenomenal force of nature.” |
| The eruption is a stunning scene but, for the UK at least, many will hope it remains simply a smouldering beauty. | The eruption is a stunning scene but, for the UK at least, many will hope it remains simply a smouldering beauty. |
| • This article was amended on 19/09/2014: Bardabunga’s lava area, rather than magma volume, is the largest in Iceland in a century. |