A new eruption at the Vagradalsvial volcano after days of earthquakes swarms

After a week of intense earthquakes, a stunning new eruption began at Iceland’s Vajradalsjal volcano on Wednesday afternoon. Volcanologists are closely watching this eruption, but only time will tell what will happen.

Written by Melissa Scroggs, Ph.D., VolcanoDoc

Quote: Scruggs, Melissa A., 2022, New eruption of Fagradalsfjall Volcano after days of seismic swarms, Temblor, http://doi.org/10.32858/temblor.264

The outbreak in Fagradasfjall. Credit: Edward Marshall

After days of high seismic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland’s Vajradalsjal volcano began erupting at 1:18 p.m. Wednesday local time. Nearly 5,000 earthquakes have been detected on the peninsula since July 30, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office — including a 5.4-magnitude event in Reykjavik on July 31. These earthquakes were accompanied by deformation of the ground near the site of last year’s eruption, indicating movement of magma towards the surface.

Currently, small lava fountains are erupting from a 300-meter (1,000-foot) fissure, moving northeast and southwest on the northern edge of the 2021 lava flow, according to researchers from the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Meteorological Office who surveyed the new eruption. Lava erupts steadily five to ten times faster than the lava that erupted at the beginning of the 2021 eruption. Already, along the fissure, rims of solid lava are beginning to form.

Why is Iceland so volcanically active?

Iceland is home to 34 active volcanoes, with an average of one erupting every four years. Volcanoes are very common in Iceland due to its unique tectonic position. It lies above the mantle plume – a hot, floppy piece of Earth’s mantle rising upward, bringing magma to the surface – and on top of the plate boundary where the North American and Eurasian plates gradually diverge. As the plates move away from each other, hot, less dense mantle rocks rise upward to fill the space between the plates. High pressures deep within the Earth maintain the mantle rigidity, but at shallower depths below the spreading edges, lower pressures force hot mantle rocks to melt, forming basaltic magma. This process is called melt decompression. Floating new magma rises through the thin crust, often erupting at linear openings called fissures and creating new land.

Eruptions at Icelandic volcanoes are generally not explosive. Hot, liquid basaltic lava flows from fissures or fountains usually flow skyward in what is called a volcanic eruption. Although volcanic eruptions are not as violent as their explosive counterparts, lava flows can still damage infrastructure, and large amounts of volcanic gases can affect air quality for nearby residents.

An eruption of the Vajradalsvial fissures in 2021 produced stunning lava flows, lava fountains and spatter cones accumulating along a linear fissure for the first time in nearly 6,000 years. A similar explosion is taking place now. Credit: Courtesy A. Shevchenko and E. Zorn (GFZ Germany).

Unsurprising scene

This week’s eruption wasn’t entirely unexpected by scientists monitoring the volcano, as increased seismic activity and height in the Earth’s surface could indicate magma is moving beneath the volcano. As magma travels toward the surface through underground channels called dams, the front end of the dam can cause the crust to fracture as it passes through the tunnels forward, causing earthquakes.

Similar earthquakes and significant ground deformation occurred in the months leading up to the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption, as a nine-kilometre (about five-and-a-half miles) narrow body of magma entered the fault zone. The dam responsible for this new eruption is located just one kilometer (about half a mile) below the surface, says Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland.

What can we expect next from Fagradalsfjall?

Although it is not possible to predict exactly what a volcano will do in the future, scientists often use past eruptions to predict future volcanic behavior. With few exceptions, Icelandic volcanoes erupt rapidly, producing fountains and streams of magnificent basaltic lava, along with large amounts of dangerous volcanic gases. Scientists can’t predict exactly when the eruption will start or end, but instead predict what might happen, based on changes in volcanic activity.

In addition to monitoring earthquakes and volcanic gases, scientists are examining the chemistry of the lava to get a better idea of ​​how the magma changes as the eruption progresses, says Francis Dejan, a volcanologist at the Swedish Research Council. This new batch of magma may have the same origins as the magma involved in last year’s eruption, Deegan says, but scientists will need to compare newly collected samples with 2021 lava to determine if there have been significant changes in the magma’s plumbing system in the past eight months.

Samples of fresh tephra from the new 2022 Vagradalsvial eruption! Ready for analysis! Data will be available soon! #fagradalsfjall pic.twitter.com/1qTOr405IN

– Hard Rock Geochem & Petro @ IES Uni. Iceland (@rockhardIES) August 4, 2022

The Icelandic Met Office does not expect any damage to infrastructure at this time, and the Icelandic Civil Defense has lowered its public safety level to reflect the reduced threat posed by the volcano. At the moment, the main problem appears to be negative air quality, which is monitored by the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Fagradalsfjall captured the world’s attention last year with its impressive cones and lava, fountains and flows. It looks like in 2022 it is preparing to do the same.

Here’s an awesome video of the crack at #Fagradalsfjall yesterday. They make beautiful spatter cones. Eventually the notch will build up in one slot, as we saw in 2021. pic.twitter.com/Ivi0YuvU8l

– Edward Marshall (@Tetraheedra) August 4, 2022

references

Fleiss, A. (2022, August 1). A powerful eruption of nearly 4,000 earthquakes occurred in Iceland, raising the risk of a new volcanic eruption as we approach August. Severe weather Europe. https://www.severe-weather.eu/news/powerful-earthquake-swarm-volcano-iceland-seismic-activity-2022-fa/

Gudmundsson, A., Bazargan, M., Hobé, A., Selek, B., & Tryggvason, A. (2021) Dike-Segment Propagation, Arrest, and Eruption at Fagradalsfjall, Iceland. Presented at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Virtual. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10508827.3

Heimisson, E., & Segall, P. (2020) Physically consistent modeling of dam and earthquake deformation: application to the 2014 Bardarbunga Dike, Iceland. Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018141

Jonsdottir, K., Cubuk Sabuncu, Y., Geirsson, H., Klaasen, S., Caudron, C., Lecocq, T., Barsotti, S., Barnie, T., Sigmundsson, F., Oddsson, B. , Gudmundsson, M., Parks, M., Fichtner, A., Thrastarson, S., & Paitz, P. (2021) Seismic Monitoring of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall Eruption, SW Iceland. Presented at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Virtual. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021AGUFM.V23B..05J/abstract

in-depth reading

Larsen, J. & Gumondson, Montana (2016 March 7). Catla. In: Oladottir, B., Larsen, G. & Guðmundsson, M. T. Catalog of Icelandic Volcanoes. IMO, UI, and CPD-NCIP. Retrieved from http://icelandicvolcanoes.is/?volcano=ENGLISH

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