An image of red-hot lava from Iceland's most recent volcanic eruption has been captured from space by a satellite.
The shot, snapped by OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 on November 24, reveals lava oozing from a fissure in the Sundhnúkur crater series on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula.
This most recent eruption began on November 20, and is the seventh to occur in this region in less than a year, with previous eruptions (going back in time) beginning on August 22, May 29, March 16, February 8, and January 14 this year, and on December 18 last year.
The satellite image shows how the lava poured from a 1.8 mile-long fissure in the ground near Stóra Skógfell peak, to the northeast of the town of Grindavík, creeping both east and westwards towards the famous Blue Lagoon, eventually engulfing its parking lot. The current eruption occurred in a similar location to the February 2024 eruption.
The Blue Lagoon was evacuated ahead of the lava's arrival, as were 50 homes in the town of Grindavík, which is home to 3,800 residents. The town has had to be evacuated several times over the course of the previous eruptions, one of which even reached the outskirts of the town and burned down a few houses.
"Iceland's current eruption is a fissure eruption. A fissure is a fracture through which a sheet of magma flows; where this fracture intersects with the surface, lava erupts onto the surface," Rachel Beane, a professor of natural sciences at Bowdoin College, told Newsweek.
She added: "Where the magma remains in a fracture-generated conduits below the surface are called dikes. Magma can travel several kilometers laterally within dikes and fissures such as is occurring near Grindavik."
According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, this eruption's activity had not decreased as quickly as was seen in previous eruptions, and was still going strong five days after the eruption began
"For comparison, it can be mentioned that the lava flow in the eruption at this moment is comparable to the lava flow in the most powerful eruptions in Fagradalsfjall," they said on November 25.
On the day of the eruption, the lava flow was estimated to be around 1,300 cubic meters per second (m3/s), which is much lower than the 2,500 m3/s rate seen during the August eruption.
"What is interesting is that the seismic activity did not increase in the weeks before the eruption, as had happened in previous events," the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.
However, as of November 27, they state that the eruption has "remained stable for the past 24 hours and the lava stream from the crater is flowing east towards Fagradalsfjall".
Another image, taken by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite, shows the heat signature radiating from the Reykjanes Peninsula around five hours after the eruption began—shining brighter even than the nearby capital city of Reykjavík.
Experts are concerned that these eruptions could carry on at this rate for tens or even hundreds of years.
"The last time we saw this, it lasted decades to hundreds of years," David Pyle, professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford, previously told Newsweek. "We're seeing the slow release of accumulated strain as the American Plate and the Eurasian Plate pull apart."
"One sequence of events that people have anticipated but that we haven't seen yet in this eruption is if the fissures propagate through Grindavik and then erupt underwater. Then there's a prospect of more violent eruptions," Pyle said.
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