[BREAKING] Svartsengi Erupt, in Iceland

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Reykjavik 11.44pm

'Time's finally up. 'Impending Svartsengi [means: BLACK MEADOW] in Sundhnjúkagigur, is part of centuries-long volcanic pulse, like Krakatoa or Krakatau in Indonesia. Since November 21, 2023 or around 4 weeks ago, Iceland Meteorological Office warns of 'significant crustal uplift', based on radar imagery in the Svartseng area, Sundhnjúkagigur, between Sýlingarfell and Hagafell, 3km from Grindavik.

view from Kopavogur town

Minute ago, ‘Svartsengi’ finally erupt [according to local authority, 10.17pm], lava flowing mainly northwards. The fissure continues to expand in length [around 4km now, not only 3km]. This appears have a greater flow rate of lava than the previous eruptions [Nov 21].

Volcano erupts for the fourth time in less than three years on the Reykjanes peninsula near Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. This comes after the area recorded thousands of earthquakes over the past weeks, including quake 9 - 10 hours ago. Chief of police in Suðurnesj [Southern Peninsula] says that the emergency responders who were in Grindavík have been called out of town. The town is supposed to be deserted. Suðurnesj part of Reykjanesskagi ([ˈreiːcaˌnɛsˌskaijɪ]), or Reykjanes Peninsula.

The fissure originating from the Sundhnúka crater series near Grindavíkurbær has rapidly expanded to approximately two kilometers from the town and continues to grow, with the potential to extend southwest. Benedikt Gunnar Ófeigsson, Head of Deformation Measurements at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, notes the uncertainty regarding the fissure's progression in the coming hours. Because 19 - 20 km from eruption zone, there are no disruptions to flights in Keflavik International Airport to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.

Lava is currently flowing north and east, and though southward flow has not commenced, the situation is evolving quickly. The crack is notably four times longer than in the previous Litla-Hrút eruption in July, indicating a more forceful start. The eruption coincided with a strong earthquake, suggesting heightened tension and pressure in the area. Tremors were recorded for about an hour and a half before the eruption confirmation. Lava flow measurements are challenging at present, but estimates range from 100 to 200 cubic meters per second.

Contrary Southern [peninsula], for Northern area did not affect this eruption.

translate in icelandic / islenska. all translations click here

"Worst case scenario" as the lava is erupting extremely close to both the town and the nearby Svartsengi geothermal powerplant, also Blue Lagoon Geothermal spa. The main roads around the volcanic eruption in Iceland have been closed to the general public after news of the eruption saw an unusual increase in evening traffic flows on Reykjanesbraut, the main road connection between Reykjavík and Keflavík Airport.

Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula is now in a new era of volcanic eruptions that will last for up to 500 years, and the building magma beneath Sundhnúkur and Grindavík is part of this millenia-long cycle. There is very, very little known about the eruption so far, except that it broadly followed the pattern of the last few: a big seismic build up as magma got very close to the surface, a major drop-in seismic activity as it pooled and crept calmly up, then an eruption.

After four essentially safe outbursts on the Reykjanes Peninsula [until Nov.21], Iceland is bracing itself for what could be a highly destructive eruption now.

It looks like this eruption *might* be happening around the old line of craters a little to the northeast of Grindavík—suggesting the magma exploited a pre-existing line of weakness in the crust.

What's happening in Iceland right now is a paradoxical thing: after all those quakes and that huge volume of magma moving up through the crust back in November, *no eruption* would have been deeply unnerving. An eruption was expected—but it was hoped to be more remote than this.

A huge injection of magma right beneath a town without an eruption would make for a more unnerving return for the residents than a (more definitive) eruption elsewhere, a clear show that the hazard had passed.

Via Turkish Media Anadolu Agency

2 Years ago, the 2021 eruption marked the start of a new cycle of volcanic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Geological records show periods of inactivity last between 600 and 1,200 years, which is then followed by pulses of eruptions lasting between 200 and 500 years, Clive Oppenheimer, a professor of volcanology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. 

"It looks like 2021 kicked off a new eruptive phase which might see the several fault zones crossing the [Reykjanes Peninsula] firing on and off for centuries," he said. 

The Reykjanes Peninsula sits above two tectonic plates that are being pulled apart. The strain that builds up is released in bursts as part of the cycle. "We are now in one of these pulses," David Pyle, a volcanologist and professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford, U.K, told Live Science in an email. "Each eruption releases just a bit more of the stored-up strain, and eventually, when all of that strain has been released, then the eruptions will stop."