A vivid look at Iceland’s recent resurgence of volcanic eruptions—and why the country could be in for 300 years of renewed volcanic activity
Breaking more than seven months of calm, the peninsula of Reykjanes in western Iceland has once again burst into volcanic flames. After a swarm of earthquakes in late July and early August rocked the area, lava burst forth from the Fagradalsfjall volcano into the valley of Meradalir—not far from the barely cooled lava from the same volcano’s 2021 eruption—treating tourists and researchers to the vibrant red-orange glow of fresh molten rock just 20 miles from Iceland’s capital of Reykjavk.
As it rises, this material partially melts, supplying Icelandic volcanoes with magma, but this isn’t the only source of molten rock in the region. Iceland, like Hawaii, is perched above a “hotspot,” a column of hot rock that rises through the mantle, driven by its own buoyancy, which adds yet more fuel to the island’s volcanic fires.
As the mid-ocean ridge spreads, Reykjanes cycles through quiet periods, typically lasting 800 to 1,000 years, followed by two or three centuries of spectacular eruptions, which scientists studying Iceland suspect could be starting now.
After longing to see an eruption on every day of her fieldwork on the peninsula around 30 years ago, Hreinsdóttir could only watch her dream come true from afar, as COVID kept her home in New Zealand in 2021. This August, however, she went on a pilgrimage to lay her hands on the cooled lava from last year, and her six-year-old son was knocked off his feet by a magnitude 4.5 earthquake.
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