New eruption in Reykjanes Iceland?

Question

Around August last year, a small fumarole field in Reykjanes Iceland started to change. One of the mud pots started to grow and act quiet violently. The entire field has grown 50m south of the original field and now the mudpot is a crater around 10m across, spitting hot clay, measured at around 300c, 10m to 20m high. This field is only a kilometer from the last fissure that erupted around 700 years ago. I live in Iceland and have heared nothing about dangers of an impeading eruption. Probably from the lack of seizmic activity. Then again, Hekla shows no signs up to 20 to 80 mins before an eruption. Could this strengthening of this field be a sign of something bigger?

This is the video I made of the crater the last week of June, and pictures from april. And an aireal photogragh from last week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZVvnr7ZN78

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadarado425/2349469483/in/set-72157594546813342/

http://www.vf.is/Frettir/36518/default.aspx

Answer 1

maybe it will just ... BOOM! well .. we will never know .. global warming is really hitting us .. waha am i right ?! well , its really unpredictable ..

Answer 2

Increasing hydrothermal activity maybe a sign of ascending magma but it is usually accompanied with minor earthquakes, that get progressively shallower over time (as magma get closer to the surface). Other indications include landscape uplift and increase in CO2 & Helium-4 in vent gases, but you would need a geologist to carry out those sort of measurements. Other signs include recently killed vegetation, due to increasing ground temperatures and noxious gasses.

Here is a link to a map of earthquakes in Iceland, the earthquakes are concentrated at the eastern end of the Reykjanes peninsula. One group of earthquakes forms a N-S line near Hveragerol, eruptions in Iceland are fissure eruptions, thus these earthquakes could indicate ascending magma and a possible eruption.

Answer 3

It could be.  The forces of nature are almost unpredictable.

Answer 4

The photos and video sure make the area look active, but I could only find where they have a yellow alert for an undersea volcano along the Reykjanes ridge.  Not being a Vulcanologist, I can only give my opinion that, since the activity is increasing, it could be an indication of an impending eruption.

Iceland: new submarine volcano offshore Reykjavik discovered

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More info: Reykjanes volcano (Southwest Iceland)Thursday Apr 10, 2008 09:35 AM | Age: 85 days

A large active submarine volcano has been found off the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland near the capital Reykjavik. The Volcanic Alert Level remained at Color Code Yellow.

Volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson from the University of Iceland and a team of scientists who have been conducting research on the volcano told in a recent press release that the volcano who has now been quiet for at least 100 year, cold well erupt in some not too distant future.

The volcano is located at 1500 m below sea level and has a summit caldera measuring 10 kilometers in diameter. The great depth of its location makes it unlikely that eruptions would have major effect on Iceland's mainland, except perhaps causing earthquakes.

According to the press article, the researchers plan in 2009 to use a small submarine to undertake more detailed research of the underwater volcano.

Icelandic submarine volcano ’simmers sinisterly’ 12 April 2008

Posted by volcanism in Iceland, current research, submarine volcanism, volcanology.



English-language Icelandic news website Iceland Review Online has another report on the large submarine volcano identified by Ármann Höskuldsson off the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, written in what’s perhaps best described as an informal, lively style:

Bubbling hot underneath 1,500 meters of water, a volcanic caldera (the lava spitting mouth of a volcano) measuring 10 kilometers in diameter simmers sinisterly. Scratching their heads, a group of Icelandic scientists wonder how it got there in the first place.

Taking a few minutes off from scratching his head, Höskuldsson warns that ‘People shouldn’t be surprised if there would be an extensive volcanic eruption underwater there soon. Nothing has happened for hundreds of years and it is in fact only a matter of time before there will be an eruption’