“It’s a bit unreal”: a volcanic eruption in Iceland fascinates



Lhe ground rumbles underfoot, then roars as meter-long fountains of orange-red lava gush forth. The intense heat marks the nearby crowd, amazed by the power of Mother Nature.

Before admiring the molten magma, coming directly from the earth’s crust several kilometers deep, you have to start a winding and difficult route. For about two hours, the hike is traced only by moss, charred by last year’s eruption along the black lava field near Mount Fagradalsfjall, and a multitude of gray rocks.

“We took the time to observe the old flow which is already extraordinary in itself and we took advantage of the path to come which was very beautiful”, says Magalie Viannisset, a French tourist. On the ground, cracks crack the earth in places, still visible stigmata of the intense seismic activity in the region for a year and a half. Curious people of many nationalities rub shoulders on the sometimes steep slopes: English, French, Spanish, Americans and of course Icelanders. Some reckless locals even venture there by bike.

When, at the end of a final hill, the Meradalir valley (“the valleys of the mares” in Icelandic) opens up, visitors are amazed to discover the spectacle before their eyes: from a crack approximately 200 meters, powerful jets of lava rise up to several meters in height and fall in bright orange flows, sometimes reddish.

“I thought I was going to be able to get a lot closer”

“It’s a bit unreal, to be honest,” said Sebastian, 51. “Seeing it on video on the internet is one thing, but watching it live and feeling the heat on your skin is very different, so… I’m glad we came today,” adds the Norwegian, accompanied by his wife and of his three children. The lava fresh out of the bowels of the Earth shows 1,200°C on the thermometer, a real furnace.

“I thought I was going to be able to get much closer,” admits James Dillis, an American living in California. “You can’t get closer than about 4 meters, even near the cool black parts because it’s so hot. But the sound of erupting lava and dramatic splashing is very, very exciting. »

The flux was estimated by the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland at 18 m3/s on the morning of the second day of the eruption, twice less than during the first hours. A ballet of helicopters and small light planes flying back and forth over the area interrupt the raw sound of rumbling lava.

We feel the power of the Earth.

The Icelanders, lucky to have been able to observe such a spectacle six months during the past year, never tire. “We feel the power of the Earth. You look at a stone and you see it melting, it’s not something ordinary,” admits Ágústa Jónsdóttir. “We came early and sat on the moss to watch and enjoy for a few hours. It was so quiet,” adds her friend Auður Kristín Ebenezersdóttir, 53.

READ ALSONo, volcanic activity on Earth has not increased

This new small outpouring of fresh lava covers an area of ​​more than 14 hectares and is less than a kilometer from the now silent craters of the previous eruption.

From March 19 to September 18, 2021, eight fissures had successively opened in the ground near Mount Fagradalsfjall and spewed lava for six months, the longest volcanic activity on the North Atlantic island for more than 50 years. Before these two eruptions, the Reykjanes Peninsula – the region of southwestern Iceland where they are located – had not seen any for almost 800 years. Its awakening could be the signal of an active volcanism in the region which could last several centuries.




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