Yesterday afternoon, not long after lunch, a new eruption started up in Iceland.
After last year’s eruption, I heard some people who know a lot more about volcanoes than I do say that it could be the start of 150 years of increased activity on the Reykjanes peninsula. Now, “increased activity” doesn’t by any means suggest 150 years of non-stop eruptions, of the peninsula flooded with lava and a whole new chain of volcanoes springing up. It could be silent for years, broken up with clusters of earthquakes and fission eruptions that last a few days or weeks and more going on underground that your average person would never know a thing about. And yesterday has demonstrated that this idea does indeed have legs, for less than a year after the latest eruption ended, we have another one!
What’s actually happening?
At the moment it’s a fairly small fissure eruption. Don’t go picturing a huge cone-shaped mountain with cartoon-style lava pouring down the side. Basically, the ground has split open and fire fountains are leaping out of the crack. From certain angles, it doesn’t look so exciting. It’s pretty much in the same place as the last one – the fissure seems to be at the north end of the 2021 lava flow and again, it’s filling a valley with lava. One of my favourite volcano experts says it’ll have to thick 40-50m to overflow its valley but you literally never know what’s going to happen.
Yeah, it’s far too soon to actually say what’s happening. Fire, lava, smoke, heat, excitement. Will it continue as a nice placid fissure? Will it build a cone and create a proper cartoon-style volcano? Will the ground open further? The 2021 one had half a dozen fissures by the time it was done – I remember spending the first day or two going “There’s a second fissure! Ooh, a third fissure! Is this a fourth fissure or am I just getting confused?”. No one knows what’s going to happen in the coming days and months.
If you missed the details of the last one, this is happening on the Reykjanes peninsula between Reykjavik and the Blue Lagoon/Keflavik Airport. It’s close enough to be easily accessible by road for anyone who’s got a car or who can get on one of the tourists buses that will inevitably start running trips out there this week but it’s far enough from even the small fishing villages that it won’t cause any damage. This is poor scrubby pasture land where thin grass and moss clings to 800-year-old lava. Local landowners have lost a bit of grazing land but they’ll more than make up their losses by charging visitors to park their cars and there’s plenty of room for the sheep to nibble elsewhere.
In 2021, there was the risk that the lava might run far enough south to destroy part of the road that runs along the south coast of the peninsula but at the moment, this one is far enough north that it’s not something anyone is worrying about just yet. It’s not going to run west and eat up the Blue Lagoon or the aiport either. It’s an absolutely textbook tourist eruption – although MBL, the Icelandic Monitor has said that it’s harder to access for the average tourist at the moment and definitely more for the experienced hiker. Worst comes to the worst, I guarantee tour companies will send out experienced hikers to lead groups and so if you’re inexperienced in hiking Icelandic mountains, you can go with one of them.
Keep an eye on Instagram, where photographers are already arriving, and there’s been some spectacular footage of it overnight – volcanoes always look more dramatic in the dark. I’ve heard that this eruption is spreading lava further and that the fountains are bigger on the first day than the lava and the fountains on the first day of the 2021 eruption, which might mean that this one is going to be bigger – or it might mean nothing.
Garðar Ólafsson, a photographer who took some amazing photos last year, has already been out and says that after only about eight hours of eruption, “Crater is slowly being born” which is amazingly quick – from what I’m seeing on my livestream, it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near ready to start building up craters but the photographic evidence says that’s happening. Follow Garðar – between his grid and his stories, he’s like a reporter on the spot and getting the absolute best photos:
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Do you want to see it?
I have the MBL livestream going on the TV all day so I can watch what’s happening and you can watch that here:
I also have an Iceland Eruption 2022 playlist which I’m updating with any other livestreams I find so I – and you – can watch the eruption live from a variety of angles.
If you want to know more about the actual geology and the volcanology of what’s going on, I have a Twitter List of those kinds of people which means I essentially have a second Twitter feed that’s nothing but volcano. Ok, some of them are Icelandic news sites so you’ll get general Icelandic news but the volcano is getting more coverage than anything else and the volcanologists are invaluable – this quote from Dr Robin Andrews (aka @SquigglyVolcano!) is worth creating the list alone:
FUN FACT: this lava is hot enough to destroy the One Ring, meaning the Fellowship didn’t need to go through all that trouble to get to Mount Doom, the idiots pic.twitter.com/yPDbORZXns
— Dr Robin George Andrews 🌋 (@SquigglyVolcano) August 3, 2022
I’ve already shown you my favourite Instagram photographer. I wish Instagram had some better way of consolidating stuff, so I could give you a link like my Twitter List to all the best people out there on the mountainside right now. Can I give you my Eruption 2022 saved folder? I can give you a Guide – last year I made a Guide of all my favourite photos but I’ll just go for one sample of each photographer this time so you can see who you should be following.
Can I go and visit it?
I try to be realistic about eruptions. The moment I saw it yesterday I declared that I must go and see it – if it lasts. It might just throw up some fire fountains for a few hours and then subside. It might not come to anything in particular. If you’re a volcanologist or a photographer, sure, it makes perfect sense to get on the next plane. For a tourist like me, it makes more sense to wait and make sure this thing is going to last before rushing off.
Why?
Well, in early days like this, there will be a lot of people who need to figure out where it’s safe to watch it from, for a start. They’ll need to set up car parks and trails to get at it – yes, they will. Otherwise visitors will ramble over the landscape at random. That might well lead to them walking on things they shouldn’t, like fresh lava or even just fragile patches of last year’s lava. No, you need to direct them to safe passage across the mountain to the eruption. Second, if you’ve got thousands of people walking at random around the area, ICE-SAR, search & rescue, won’t know where to find anyone who gets into trouble – and they will get into trouble (and have already: just thirteen hours after the eruption started, a man was airlifted out with a broken ankle!). They’ll find themselves trapped on the mountainside after dark, they’ll fall over things and cause injuries that need to be treated by medical professionals, they’ll get themselves cut off by new lava flows, all sorts. Far better all round that you’re somewhere a professional can trip over you. Then there’s the matter of toxic gases. You see smoke and steam and you don’t think of the invisible killer volcanic gases wafting around. In 2021, they had to close the area half a dozen times as levels of volcanic gases got dangerously high. If I remember rightly, only one person died in the 1972 Heimaey eruption – admittedly, someone who should have been evacuated by that point – and I think he was overcome by the gases, rather than got by the fast-flowing lava. So, in short – before the average tourist can turn up and stare at it, some tourist infrastructure needs to be put in place.
Also, half of Iceland is going to be rushing out right now. Last year I watched some epic traffic jams. They’ll die down. Oh, no one will get bored with it for quite a while but I’d give it at least a few days for the initial chaos to calm. Besides, I’ve got a rebooked camping trip next weekend so if it’s still going and if it’s plausible, I guess I’ll be setting out somewhere around the 15th, or that week which gives plenty of time for the volcano to really get going, for everything to be put into place and for the worst of the chaos to subside.
And if I do go, you bet I’ll have a shrieking, semi-incoherent blog post about how I SAW AN ACTUAL LIVE VOLCANO!!!