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Magma flow into the dike beneath Grindavík at an unprecedented rate of 261,000 cubic animal foot per 2nd ( 7,400 three-dimensional meters per second base ) before the volcano first combust in Iceland ’s Reykjanes Peninsula , according to a newfangled study .
" We were very surprised , " lead authorFreysteinn Sigmundsson , a geophysicist at the University of Iceland , tell Live Science in an email . During the three previous volcanic eruption in the realm that hire place between 2021 and 2023 , magma flow into the dike was estimated to be less than 3,500 three-dimensional feet per second ( 100 cubic m per second ) . " For the Grindavík butch it was almost 100 times gamey , " Sigmundsson enounce .
A third eruption has taken place on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland after a huge magma dike formed beneath the ground in November, 2023.
A 9.3 - mile ( 15 kilometers ) magma dyke — a near - erect tunnel running from the magma chamber to a lower place — formed beneath Grindavík in November , 2023 , . At that point the neighborhood experienced a massive growth in seismic action . Officials evacuated the fishing town , which has a population of around 3,800 , kick in the danger of an irruption .
The volcano eruptedon Dec. 18 , with a 2.5 - mile ( 4 km ) chap opening andsending lava be sick up to 100 feet(30 meters ) into the air . Thevolcano erupted again on Jan 14 . , with two fissures gap on the fringe of Grindavík . Athird eruptionoccurred today ( Feb. 8) , with a 2 - mile - long ( 3 km ) cleft spread up near Mount Sundhnúkur to the north of Grindavík . The events are part of a millenia - long round that fuel bam .
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Molten lava is seen overflowing the road leading to the famous tourist destination “Blue Lagoon” near Grindavik, western Iceland on February 8, 2023.
In a young work publish Feb. 8 in the journalScience , researcher examined the establishment of the dike that extend to the irruption by combining satellite - ground observations and seismic mensuration , along with physical models . They found the magma fall from the chamber into the dike at an exceptionally fast rate , like to the estimated pace of the1783/84 eruptionof Laki , which is around 130 miles ( 209 kilometer ) Cicily Isabel Fairfield of Grindavík . Within a year of the 8 - month - long eruption , 60 % of the country ’s farm animal and 20 % of the population break .
The Reykjanes Peninsula sit at the edge of the Eurasiatic and North Americantectonic plates . This department of the boundary has been stretching without any eruptions in the last 800 years . The Grindavík dike formed after magma amass about 3.1 nautical mile ( 5 kilometre ) beneath the surface in what is known as a magma arena .
" A magma dead body is like an ' exposit balloon ' inside the Earth , that can rupture , " Sigmundsson said . The scientists found that the eruption took station with only modest overpressure — the amount of pressure that outdo the environ pressure at that astuteness . This modest pressure alone could not have top to such Brobdingnagian speeds of magma flow .
" It mean that other factors were crucial in explaining the fast magma flow — namely the forces due to the prior stretching of the crust ( tension ) as well as a large fracture on the boundary on the magma area , " Sigmundsson said . " The stretching force out contribute very significantly to the driving press for magma period in the dyke , make the very flying flow . "
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Discovering such a high inflow rate of magma has deduction for other volcanoes . A dike with a in high spirits influx rate of magma is potentially more risky than those filling at grim stop number . But it ’s also authoritative to place the filling pace in context of the geological setting , as this will help mold the likeliness of magma reaching the surface .
The power of this chamber to fill so quickly also has conditional relation for future hazards on the Reykjanes Peninsula — even areas not in the direct itinerary of erupting magma .
" The consequences of panoptic faulting and fracturing above the dyke in Grindavík , showed how very destructive such events can be , even without an eruption , " Sigmundsson say .
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