Noos News•
The series of volcanic eruptions currently occurring in Iceland could last for decades and continue to threaten the country’s most populous region and infrastructure. This is clear from new research published in a scientific journal Terra Nova.
The series of explosions began in 2021 on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 55 kilometers southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. There have been five eruptions since last December He was.
Due to continuous explosions, in March A state of emergency was declared in Reykjanes, where Reykjavik International Airport and several power plants are located.
There is a lot of volcanic activity in Iceland, but the Reykjanes Peninsula has not had a volcanic eruption in 800 years. At that time, the active period also lasted for decades.
Lava Monsters
To conduct the study, scientists analyzed earthquake data from the past three years and took lava samples from different locations. This showed that lava from different eruptions comes from the same magma chamber. This chamber is between nine and eleven kilometers deep and ten kilometers wide, and is believed to have been formed between 2002 and 2020.
The research team concludes that the current series of explosions may be the beginning of a long period, but it does not dare to specify the duration. “Nature is never uniform,” says one of the study’s authors. “We don’t know how long or how many times this will continue in the next 10 or even 100 years. A pattern will emerge, but nature always has exceptions and irregularities.”
Land of volcanoes
The coastal city of Grindavik has been rendered virtually uninhabitable for its 4,000 residents due to volcanic eruptions. “The government bought most of the housing in Grindavik for 51.5 billion ISK (about $370 million) because the city is uninhabitable,” said Snorri Valsson, spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Corporate Affairs.
Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a tectonic plate boundary where the North American and Eurasian plates move apart. Therefore, volcanic eruptions are common in Iceland. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 caused significant air traffic disruption as the volcano spewed a lot of ash and smoke into the atmosphere.