Nature
PUBLISHED
Iceland has been having something of a bumper year when it comes to volcanic activity, with lava flows causing all sorts of bother, even leading to evacuations. While the lava flows can be terrifyingly powerful, they are also all sorts of mesmerizing.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Videographer Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove captured incredible drone footage of the lava inside the Sundhnúkagígar crater row, near Grindavik. He told Storyful that the patterns and movement of the lava were “mind-boggling to watch” and we can’t help but agree.
A 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) fissure opened up in the region in late August after a series of moderate earthquakes. Fortunately, the flow is not headed for the evacuated town of Grindavik, although roads have been closed to protect people from toxic gasses coming from the site.
“If this continues like this, Grindavík is not in danger. Of course, we don’t know what will happen in the near future, but it is likely that this has reached its peak and then it will start to subside like the other eruptions" geophysicist Magnús Tuma Guðmundsson told EuroNews.
The Icelandic Met Office wrote on its website on August 29: “The eruption continues in the area northeast of Stóra-Skógfell. The activity has remained fairly stable for the last few days. There are two main lava fountains active which seem quite vigorous. Lava continues to flow mostly to the northwest at a slow rate but also to the east.”
This is the sixth time since December 2023 that a volcano has erupted in the region. Back in February of this year, the lava flow set a new world record for the fastest magma speed recorded.
Scientists are working to find out why this area of the southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula is experiencing such a high level of volcanic activity, which can involve looking at the chemical makeup of the lava produced.
And in case you think the melting lava looks like a pretty delicious snack of forbidden rarebit, we dared asked the experts what lava would actually taste like.
