Lava in its veins

Without volcanoes Iceland would not exist. The Icelanders know it and have not only learned to live with the fact but to welcome it as a life source.  Despite - or perhaps due to - being always on the alert, they cultivate a gentle way of life and show genuine affection for their rumbling mountains.   

“Very often when people see our car they come and ask us about the latest seismic activity in the area or if something extraordinary is about to happen,” says Karolina Michalczewska, one of the many geologists at the Reykjavik Institute of Earth Sciences. “In fact a lot of information is posted regularly on the Internet by the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Everybody can follow the seismic activity and deformations of the earth’s crust thanks to the GPS instruments that monitor the situation continuously,” she explained. Also, since the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull shut down the European air space in April 2010, the EU has set up a crisis unit and adopted guidelines to be followed in the event of volcanic ash emissions.  Measures that the European Commission says made it possible to adopt a more scaled response following the eruption of Mount Grimsvötn in May 2011.

Midway

“It is hard not to be interested in these things when you are in Iceland. You only need to drive a few miles outside of the capital to find yourself in the middle of lava fields, in a landscape untouched by civilization,” continues the geologist. Iceland has more than 200 craters, including 170 active volcanoes. An island of lava, ice and meadows extending to over 100,000 km2, the country is the emerged part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  The two edges of this ridge are moving away from one another at a rate of 2 cm a year, thereforby increasing the distance between Europe and America. An enormous rift or graben cuts across the island, running from the southwest to the northeast, the most impressive section of which can be found on the Thingvellir Plain, site of the first Icelandic parliament.  

Laboratory

“A typical Icelandic eruption is characterised by the emission of basalt lava along the fissures, often creating what is known as a central volcano,” explains Karolina Michalczewska. “But - and last year’s eruption of Eyjafjallajökull was a powerful reminder - this is not always the case.  Iceland is a volcanic laboratory providing incredible opportunities to study and observe the way the earth’s crust was formed, making it a special place for scientists.”

“In Iceland,” continues the volcanologist, “it is easy to see that our planet is a living organism. Earth tremors are recorded every day and on average there is a volcanic eruption every 4 or 5 years.” In the autumn of 2010 a jökulhlaup was observed from Iceland’s biggest glacier, the Vatnajökull. There are six volcanoes beneath the 8,300 km² of this ice cap, including the famous Grimsvötn (‘hidden lakes’). The presence of a jökulhlaup – a pocket of water that accumulates beneath the glacier and then suddenly bursts – is an indicator of volcanic activity. “We were already expecting the Grimsvötn to erupt then, but it finally came in May of this year. Which shows how difficult it is to predict an eruption with any exactitude.”  

All eyes are now on the volcano Katla, which lies beneath the Mýrdalsjökull glacier and was shaken somewhat by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Finally, if the interval between each eruption is taken as the reference, then the next volcano on the list is the Hekla. “It should erupt in the very near future.”

M.M.B.