Iceland Volcano Eruption Update; Toxic Gas Emissions, Lava Walls at Risk of Being Overtopped

Published: Mar 21, 2024 Duration: 00:04:48 Category: Education

Tags : Volcano iceland eruption iceland volcano reykjanes grindavik eruption lava iceland volcano eruption Geology

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There are two major developments at Iceland's erupting Reykjanes volcano which has just entered its 7th day. First, a person was injured by the ongoing eruption thankfully not due to burns from heat but rather something which can be just as deadly; exposure to unhealthy levels of volcanic gas. Second, there is suddenly an increased likelihood of two sections of the dirt wall blocking existing lava flows from entering Grindavik being overtopped. While the earliest lava walls were constructed to a height of 9 meters or 30 feet tall, certain more recent sections were only built to a height of 4 meters or 13 feet. And, while the current lava field has not greatly expanded during the last 100 hours, molten rock is making the existing lava flows slowly become thicker. Due to the fairly high viscosity of this lava, new material pushes underlying basaltic rock, which despite not currently reaching the lava walls has pushed material there upwards. This material has recently piled higher than certain 4 meter high sections of the wall, and soon could overtop it. However, any spillover would likely be small in volume, and there are no structures immediately at risk if this were to hypothetically occur. As for the person who was injured, although the exact details have not been specified, the person who was injured is allegedly an employee of the Blue Lagoon. They started showing symptoms relating to overexposure to volcanic gas when the wind suddenly started blowing the volcanic plume in the direction of the Blue Lagoon. Now for a bit of speculation. My current unproven interpretation is that this individual was exposed to more than 2 parts per million of sulfur dioxide gas. This figure represents the long term limit OSHA is the United States allows for a 40 hour work week. Sulfur dioxide is the most common of the main three potentially deadly volcanic gasses being released with a concentration of 100 parts per million or more being potentially immediately lethal. This gas is heavier than air, and as such naturally pools at higher concentrations in areas which are surrounded by higher topography on all sides. Luckily, according to my sources, the individual in question will most likely make a full recovery. 7 vents are still continuously erupting lava, and between March 17th and March 20th an official figure states that the eruptive rate averaged 14.5 cubic meters per second. If this pattern continues, every subsequent 24 hours will add 1.252 million cubic meters of lava to the erupted total. It appears that my prior estimates for the volume of erupted lava was about 43% too high, as the official figure is 20.9 million cubic meters of lava. This means the current lava flow field averages 3.75 meters or 12.3 feet thick, with the growing spatter cones as much as 20 meters or 65.6 feet thick. However, this average figure of 14.5 cubic meters per second when combined with the current total of erupted lava indicates that 76% of molten rock the ongoing eruption emitted was produced during its first 218 minutes. Crunching the numbers, this slightly longer than 3.5 hour initial period averaged a stunning 1214.7 cubic meters per second! Yesterday, I showcased several dates which suggested potential cases where the ongoing Reykjanes eruption would end. I would like to elaborate a bit more with two of those dates using everyone's favorite subject; math! The relevant data largely used the average magma influx in cubic meters per second which entered Reykjanes's underlying 5 kilometer depth magma chamber since December 10th 2023. After plugging in known values, I then used software to determine the best fit equations for the available datasets. The best fit was the cubic function, which as we can see somewhat accurately follows the trend of available data. It suggests that on day 113 or March 31st that magma influx into the magma chamber will drop below 3 cubic meters per second. During Iceland's volcanic eruptions since 2021, dropping below 3 cubic meters per second has seemingly always caused eruptive activity to cease. However, since it is quite likely that the majority of magma is now originating from magma emplaced into the magma dike during past intrusions rising to the surface, the aforementioned prediction could very well be inaccurate.

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