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John Farrell

For the third time since December, a volcano system in southwestern Iceland is erupting. Lava from the eruption engulfed a pipe and cut off a hot water supply to about 30,000 people across Reykjanes Peninsula. Nearby areas have also been evacuated or closed, although volcanic activity is decreasing.

The repeated rumble of activity over recent months indicates that magma underground is active. That also means more volcanic activity is not out of the question.

“There’s no hint that there is a bigger eruption on the way; but what we do know is that magma is still flowing into the crust and being stored for a while and then occasionally bursting out in an eruption,” David Pyle, a volcanologist at the University of Oxford, wrote in an email. “We have now seen this same pattern since late October, and it looks like it will continue into the future.”

Images from an Icelandic Coast Guard surveillance flight indicate that this eruption is occurring in the same area as the previous eruptions, most recently in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/18/iceland-volcano-eruption/" target=_blank>December</a> and<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/14/volcano-eruption-iceland-grindavik/" target=_blank> January</a>. The Icelandic Meteorological Office has seen increased seismic activity in the area since <a href="https://www.visiticeland.com/article/volcano-info" target=_blank>October</a>, which could have been a precursor to volcanic activity.

While volcanic eruptions are common across Iceland, the recent activity has occurred in a region that has been quiet for centuries.

Iceland consists of three zones of volcanic activity — in the north, east and west — geologist Thomas Algeo said. Eruptions tend to frequently occur in one zone for centuries, and then activity shifts to a new zone.

The recent activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula is part of the West Volcanic Zone, which until recently hadn’t been active since 1200. Eruptions in this zone pose a risk to nearby population centers, unlike those in the eastern and northern volcanic zones, which were in relatively remote areas.

It’s not unusual for there to be quick successions of eruptions when the volcanic rift systems become active, Algeo said.

“It is possible (but still uncertain) that magmatic activity has shifted to the [West Volcanic Zone], and that it will experience many eruptions for decades or centuries to come,” Algeo, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, wrote in an email.

On Thursday morning, seismic activity began northeast of Mount Sýlingarfell, according to the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night" target=_blank>Icelandic Meteorological Office</a>. Thirty minutes later, a volcanic eruption started in the area. A crack in the rock, or eruptive fissure, lengthened to about two miles, expanding north and south.

Marco Di Marco

Lava fountains hit 160 to 260 feet high, and volcanic plumes rose about two miles above the eruptive fissure, according to the Met Office.

Volcanic rock fragments that were ejected into the air, known as tephra, were blown two to three miles away to the town of Grindavík. Tephra can be as sharp as glass and can affect human activities hundreds of miles downwind, reducing visibility on roads and for aircraft, and even short-circuiting electric transformers and power lines. So far, however, the Met Office reported that the tephra appears to be staying relatively close to the eruptive fissure.

The hot water supply cut off by the eruption could take about a day to restore, according to <a href="https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-02-08-eruption-on-the-reykjanes-peninsula-404272" target=_blank>local news outlets</a>. The eruption also prompted the evacuation and closure of the <a href="https://www.bluelagoon.com/seismic-activity" target=_blank>Blue Lagoon</a>, one of the country’s most popular tourist sites, through at least Friday. Police have said Grindavík and surrounding roads are also <a href="https://safetravel.is/eruption-in-reykjanes/" target=_blank>closed</a>.

“This damage to infrastructure will be fixed soon enough, but it gives an idea of how even small eruptions can be quite disruptive,” said Pyle, the Oxford volcanologist.

As of Thursday afternoon, the eruption appeared to decrease in strength. This eruption, Pyle said, is very similar to the events in December and January that started from a long fissure and quickly declined in intensity after erupting a lot of magma.

“This eruption, and the ones in December and January, behaved very much as the scientists of the Icelandic Met Office had forecast,” Pyle said. “This is good news for our understanding of what is happening, and means that we can better prepare scientifically for any future events.”

Days before Thursday’s eruption, scientists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office and the University of Iceland determined that approximately 6.5 million cubic meters of magma accumulated beneath the region. That was the same volume as before the January eruption, so scientists anticipated that the volcano was about to blow again.

The driving mechanisms for the recent eruptions can likely be traced back to activity last <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/11/16/iceland-volcano-reykjanes-grindavik/" target=_blank>November</a>. In November, scientists reported the formation of a 9-mile-long dike, which serves as the principal channel for magma to travel through and reach the surface during a volcanic eruption.

During the dike formation, magma flowed at an unprecedented rate — 7,400 cubic meters per second, according to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn2838" target=_blank>new research released Thursday</a>. That’s close to the average discharge of the <a href="https://www.geol.lsu.edu/WDD/N_AMERICAN/Yukon/yukon.htm" target=_blank>Yukon River</a>. The event caused damage and spurred evacuations in the town of Grindavík, which stood above the river of magma.

In the new study, researchers aimed to better understand the dike’s formation. The team analyzed ground deformation measurements and seismic observations to model how the dike evolved and how magma was transported. They found that fracturing and tectonic stresses played an important part in driving these massive magma flows, even when there’s only a modest amount of excess pressure from below.

The findings could help scientists understand how such large magma flows and dikes could form in other geologically similar regions like Iceland. The country sits on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/12/19/iceland-volcano-flights-air-travel-lava-danger/" target=_blank>Mid-Atlantic Ridge</a>, a mostly underwater mountain range where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly spreading apart and widening the Atlantic Ocean. This force has been building up over hundreds of years and is the main reason for the ongoing activity in Iceland, said Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland who was not involved in the research.

The new research could help better understand activity “along the mid-oceanic ridges of the world, and Afar (East Africa) where incipient sea floor spreading takes place,” the authors wrote in the study.

“The eruptions are providing new insights into how mid-ocean ridge spreading systems behave,” said Algeo, who was not involved in the research. “Iceland is about the only place in the world where an oceanic spreading center rises above sea level, making direct observations possible. Scientists are gaining new insights into how magmatic moves and is redistributed in such volcanic systems.”

Wake Forest University, BS in Chemistry

Boston University, MS in Science Journalism

Kasha Patel writes the weekly Hidden Planet column, which covers scientific topics related to Earth, from our inner core to space storms aimed at our planet. She also covers weather, climate and environment news.

Kasha Patel

This Iceland volcano system has erupted again. And again. Is this normal?

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