The main attraction of Iceland is its treeless, basalt-colored landscape, a source of inspiration for the lonely scenes of dystopian films. But sometimes nature suddenly revives and projects images that become allies of strange geology tourism. You can visit Geysir to be surprised by the capricious jets of thermal water or visit the receding glaciers with unpronounceable names with a blue smudged with black, and now the curious crowd to see the new volcano opened on the slope of the Litli Hrutur mountain , on the Keykjanes peninsula, about 30 km southwest of Reykjavik.
The smoke could be seen this week from the highway linking the capital to its international airport, where motorists stopped to take photos of the flaming plumes of smoke. Already during the previous dates, small tremors predicted that the magma was moving and that the eruption was imminent.
“In an event like this, the first thing the authorities do is close off the directly affected area, where there can be a real risk and explosions, although there is always someone who skips it; but from then on people are allowed to see it, because this is considered a spectacle”, explains Joan Martí, volcanologist and director of Geociències Barcelona (GEO3B-CSIC).
Obviously, if someone crosses the safety line and approaches the area where the lava flows, they can burn, but the main problem, Martí adds, are the emissions of volcanic gases. However, as it is a relatively flat area, there is no possibility of accumulation, with which the gases disperse. Once access control has been delimited and these precautions taken, the Icelandic Administration itself makes it easier for hikers to “see the show, learn about this phenomenon and learn about it,” adds Martí.
On this occasion, the eruption took place a few kilometers from two previously recorded eruptions in the last two years: the first, on March 19, 2021 in the Geldingadalur valley (which lasted six months), and the second, which began on August 3, 2022 in the valley of Meradalir (with a duration of three months).
Both attracted thousands of visitors eager to see the spectacle. Iceland has 33 active volcanic systems, the highest number in Europe, and the country records an eruption every five years on average.
Martí was previously studying this area before the 2021 eruptions. This is a seismic region that has been inactive for eight centuries, but it may enter a period of greater activity, according to scientists, so it must be monitored. “And then, we saw that the probability of new eruptions was high,” says Martí. In addition, the predicted scenario was that lava emissions would occur, as has happened.
In Iceland there is a volcanism associated with large eruptions, such as that of Vesuvius, with explosions and great danger, and a second type, characterized by large fissures in the ground, through which very liquid lava flows, several kilometers long; basically basaltic lava, which “will come out until the fuel runs out.” It is a monotonous flow, like that of a river, and it could reach the sea and expand the perimeter of the Icelandic geography.
But volcanoes are not always allies of tourism, quite the contrary; In April 2010, the clouds of gases and particles produced by the Eyjafjalla eruption spread across Europe and forced the cancellation of more than 10,000 flights, leaving more than 10 million travelers on the ground.
The mechanism that triggers all these eruptions is always the Atlantic regional tectonic activity, related to the separation of the American and European plates (at a rate of several centimeters each year). This separation is occupied by a new oceanic crust, that molten rock (magma), which emerges to the surface and cools down. “The island grows as the lava cools down,” says Martí.
Magma can accumulate at intermediate depths (10 kilometers underground), but the fusion zone, where the rock becomes liquid and lava is generated, can be 40 or 50 kilometers underground.
Similarly, other volcanoes, such as Askja, in the uninhabited highlands of central Iceland, have recently shown signs of activity. One of the most dangerous in the country is the Katla, located near the southern coast. It last erupted in 1918, with an unusually long pause. The 1783 eruption, caused by the Laki volcanic fissure in the south of the island, is considered the most devastating in Icelandic history. Between 50% and 80% of the cattle died, causing a famine that killed a quarter of the population. Volcanoes fascinate, perhaps because they portray the fine line that separates spectacle and tragedy.
