Iceland Declares State of Emergency, Evacuating Town Due to Volcanic Activity
1,400 earthquakes were recorded in a 24-hour period, which may indicate magma is on its way to the surface.
Iceland has declared a state of emergency and is attempting to evacuate the coastal town of Grindavík. These actions have been taken in response to a swarm of intense earthquakes in the region, which could indicate an impending volcanic eruption.
Iceland declared an emergency and issued evacuation orders for a popular tourist town Saturday after 1,400 earthquakes were recorded in a 24-hour period — sparking fears of an impending volcanic eruption.
Authorities urged residents of Grindavík to flee the coastal town following the flurry of seismic activity roughly 3 miles below the surface of the Reykjanes Peninsula.
“There are indications that a considerable amount of magma is moving in an area” near the Fagradalsfjall volcano, about 25 miles southwest of Reykjavik, the country’s capital, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said in an 11:30 p.m. update.
“The amount of magma involved is significantly more than what was observed in the largest magma intrusions associated with the eruptions at Fagradalsfjall.”
Iceland sits along a plate boundary, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, pushing the North American continent away from Europe. It also sits on top of a “hot spot,” a magma plume bringing molten rock to the surface. It is home to 130 volcanoes, and fissure eruptions, which occur along breaks on the Earth’s surface, are also known to occur.
The seismic activity map of Iceland right now is…jaw-dropping.
These are quakes that have happened in just the last 6 hours. The Reykjanes Peninsula is smothered in thousands of small quakes and some mid-magnitude ones.
That's what happens when rising magma breaks rocks. pic.twitter.com/cia8wdC7Ad
— Dr Robin George Andrews 🌋☄️ (@SquigglyVolcano) November 11, 2023
The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most iconic spots, recently closed due to the substantial increase in seismic activity.
“Blue Lagoon has proactively chosen to temporarily suspend operations for one week, despite the authorities not raising the current level of uncertainty during this period of seismic activity,” the lagoon’s website reads.
“The primary reason for taking these precautionary measures is our unwavering commitment to safety and wellbeing. We aim to mitigate any disruption to our guests’ experiences and alleviate the sustained pressure on our employees. During this time, Blue Lagoon will carefully monitor the seismic developments and reassess the situation as necessary.”
A significant volcanic eruption in Iceland has the potential to impact the globe. The 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano significantly disrupted air travel, which led to changes in that industry, which cost the airlines over $1 billion. It also forced transportation professionals to figure out methods aimed at assessing how to navigate around volcanic ash.
Ash advisories derived from dispersion-model output were issued by the London VAAC, depicting the presence of ash over large parts of Europe and the North Atlantic. Based on those advisories, over 300 airports in about two dozen countries, and a correspondingly large airspace, were closed in Europe during 15-21 April 2010. This resulted in massive impacts on air travel worldwide. Over 100,000 flights were cancelled over that week, affecting 7 million passengers, and resulting in $1.7 billion USD in lost revenue to airlines according to an analysis by Oxford Economics.
…Also in response to Eyjafjallajökull’s impact on air travel, ICAO formed the International Volcanic Ash Task Force (IVATF) in May 2010, charging it to examine how best to define hazardous airspace and manage aviation risk. The IVATF included representatives from government and industry groups involved in aviation regulation, operations, and scientific investigations.
Historically, more significant eruptions in Iceland have impacted global weather….which may lead “experts” to start another round of worrying about the next Ice Age. The 1783 eruption of Laki released enough fluoride to poison livestock across the island and triggered a very harsh winter.
The Laki eruption lasted eight months during which time about 14 cubic km of basaltic lava and some tephra were erupted. Haze from the eruption was reported from Iceland to Syria.
In Iceland, the haze lead to the loss of most of the island’s livestock (by eating fluorine contaminated grass), crop failure (by acid rain), and the death of one-quarter of the human residents (by famine)…
The climatic effects of the Laki eruption are impressive. In the eastern United States, the winter average temperature was 4.8 degrees C below the 225 year average. The estimate for the temperature decrease of the entire Northern Hemisphere is about 1 degree C.
Now we're feeling the earthquakes in Reykjavík too!
Everything is going crazy on #Reykjanes Peninsula! Intensified seismicitiy, a dyke intrution may have started… pic.twitter.com/7PX7Unic2X
— Dr. Thorbjorg Agustsdottir (@fencingtobba) November 10, 2023
Here is hoping for the smallest possible impact on everyone!
Questo impressionante video proviene da #Grindavík, la città più vicina all'intensa sequenza sismica in corso in queste ore in Islanda. I piani di evacuazione sono già pronti ma non sono ancora in atto. Lì le scosse vengono avvertite praticamente in modo continuo. pic.twitter.com/EYx0RCUWpG
— Il Mondo dei Terremoti (@mondoterremoti) November 10, 2023
"Experts" suggest ways of stopping Iceland volcanism. pic.twitter.com/YugdTBybDI
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) November 11, 2023
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Comments
Abundant green energy and global warming mitigation!
We need to develop a wind powered volcano.
Spot on! We need to address the elephant in the room (no, not Chris Christie—the Big lie of green energy and global warming).
It was cold the first few weeks of November then it got warm again. We used to call that Indian Summer, now we call it climate change.
Never thought of him as the elephant in the room.
A walrus, maybe….
whoo hoo.
Shouldn’t that be “coo-coo-katchoo”?
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” sang Christie when eating his donut to the tune of his favorite Beatles song.
“The climatic effects of the Laki eruption are impressive. In the eastern United States, the winter average temperature was 4.8 degrees C below the 225 year average.”
That’s what, 7.2 degree F drop?
What impact will this eruption have equivalent to the emissions from internal combustion engines?
720% decrease
The weird t hing is that the town evacuated apparently leaving pets behind. In the US in flood rescues they take pets because too many people refuse rescue if they’d leave pets behind.
The Icelandic Red Cross. Queued up.
https://youtu.be/1lDpgxCHmOQ?t=144
The best explainer regarding the current volcanic event. Shot two days ago. Presented by English speaking Icelanders. They made the video standing not one mile from the site of the expected magma flow and pan the camera to highlight every possible flow-site. No one is allowed to go where this video was shot.
20 minute on-site interview with a Icelandic volcanologist.
The Reykjavík Grapevine:
https://tinyurl.com/pdxdty6w
Leslie has the right idea…just tax the thing into submission.
Not to use this terrible event to make a point but when it erupts, the pollution it spews out will be equal to or exceed all of the SUVs in the world! If it is of a greater magnitude, it will exceed all pollution in the world.
I thought it was verboten to mention that. Or does that prohibition only apply to the scientific community which depends on grants?
When governments are given “emergency powers”, THIS is the sort of emergency they should be dealing with. Not a flu.
Or it’s Pele, mad at those greenies who think they can suck the energy out of the middle of the earth without consequence.
Oh, and this is obligatory, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPC-xbMoRx8
“Fagradalsfjall”
Is that a real word?
It sure looks authentic for Icelandic.
It’s like “far fig newton”, but different.
geronl: “Fagradalsfjall” Is that a real word?
Icelandic is a Germanic language, as is English.
fagur, fair or beautiful
dalur, dale or valley
fjall, fell or mountain
Fair mountain valley
That sounds like a name invented by a real estate salesman. Like “Greenland”.
Has anyone considered throwing the obnoxious and tiresome Greta Thunberg into the volcano?
Asking for a friend…
Send her to the epicenter to consume vast quantities of “climate justice” for us all!
You really want to piss off the gods, don’t you?
90% of their power is geothermal, that is a place were electric vehicles may make sense, Iceland 40%
Except when running the heater drains your battery before you get 150 miles and you’re stranded out there.
Ben Franklin noted that the 1783 eruption might have an impact on climate, a claim that has modern scientific support. See Zambri et al., Modeling the 1783–1784 Laki Eruption in Iceland: Climate Impacts, JGR Atmosphere 2019.
inspectorrudy: Not to use this terrible event to make a point but when it erupts, the pollution it spews out will be equal to or exceed all of the SUVs in the world! If it is of a greater magnitude, it will exceed all pollution in the world.
However, volcanic emissions of greenhouse gases are dwarfed by anthropogenic emissions. The eruption of volcanoes, such as Fagradalsfjall, emit large quantities of sulfur particulates, which block sunlight and cause clouds to become more reflective, cooling the climate. However, sulfur particulates will quickly scrub out of the atmosphere over a few months or years. When that happens, the mean surface temperature will return to trend.
If volcanism were to increase substantially and were to be sustained over a long period, then it could certainly lead to significant global cooling. However, there is no indication that it will do so. Contrarily, a decrease in volcanism could exacerbate the warming trend due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
—
(Of note, volcanoes give an opportunity to put limits on transient climate response, or TCR. Various measures put TCR at about 1-2°C. Equilibrium climate sensitivity, or ECS, is about 2-4°C.)
Volcanoes also emit huge quantities of carbon dioxide, If you want to claim that’s dwarfed by automobile emissions, please give some numbers and links.
markm: please give some numbers and links.
Sure, but you might think about it first. Consider that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 has increased significantly over the last several decades, but volcanic emissions have not.
In any case, CO2 outgassing from volcanoes, including submarine volcanoes, is about 0.13 to 0.44 gigatons per year. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are about 35 gigatons per year. See Gerlach, Volcanic Versus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide, EOS Transactions from the American Geophysical Union, 2011. Large eruptions as seen over the last few decades emit as much CO2 as humans, but only for a few hours or days.