Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
So,
what people had feared has finally happened: lava from a fissure eruption on
Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula has touched Grindavik, setting fire to houses on
the fishing town’s northern outskirts.
This is the fifth eruption in the southwestern region of the country since March 2021.
On one level, of course, it’s no surprise: Iceland sits atop
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are
slowly divorcing.
Material in Earth’s mantle rises to fill the opening, melting
as it does so.
This volcanic activity is also being fed by a deep plume of hot
rock similar to the upwellings that gave us the Azores and Hawaii.
Iceland is
the consequence of these natural forces. But why are these eruptions occurring
here in this corner of the country, and why now?
That’s more difficult to
answer. Scientists talk about a new era of volcanism – one that repeats the
series of fissure eruptions that scarred the peninsula between AD 1210 and AD
1240.
If that’s the case, then the people of Grindavik could be looking at years
of disruption. The authorities will continue to fight the lava flows by
building levees and ditches, hoping to at least corral the molten material on
to the least destructive path.
But what they can’t control is a fissure at some
point opening up right in the centre of the town – an outcome that remains a
depressing possibility.
Source link : https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-67973655
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Publish date : 2024-01-15 08:00:00
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