The Hell Machine

/ 08/04/2021

Guest post by Chad

The three musketeers, firing away

As is now abundantly clear, a new eruptive cycle on the Reykjanes Peninsula has begun. While an isolated eruption did happen in the ocean off the end of the peninsula in 1783, there has not been an eruption on land since 1240, today 781 years ago.

The eruption ongoing now has ratherbroken the regular cycle of eruptions at Reykjanes. Normally those begin at Brennisteinsfjoll and go west over a few hundred years, but this vent is on Fagradalsfjall, a mountain right in the middle of the peninsula. This area would not be expected to activate for at least a century yet, but here we are, watching the camera religiously as this new volcano grows before our eyes.

The magma is being generated at a great depth, nearly 20 km or twice as deep as normal eruptions in this area begin, and by mantle that is nearly totally melted to result in a lava that has a very high concentration of olivine. This sort of basalt even has its own name, picrite, and it is the closest thing to the ancient komatiite lava that erupts on the Earth today. This has been interpreted as a possible case for a shield volcano to form at, something which has not happened here for many millennia, but I think there are rather more profound implications for this. The magma is fluid and extremely hot, well over 1200 C, and that is enough to allow both physical and thermal erosion of the interior of the conduit, which will serve to only allow more magma to flow, in a compounding effect. Direct mantle eruptions are rare, but one that is currently ongoing if hard to observe is going on under the ocean near the island of Mayotte near Madagascar. It is not particularly intense, but since it began in mid 2018 some 5 km3 of lava has erupted to date.

The magma for eruptions like this is created by decompression melting as the pressure drops, a self feeding cycle that is limited only by the rate of mantle flow to the area. It is a self sustaining machine, the Hell Machine as I like to call it.

Hell Machines are a rare sort of eruption. Like said above they are perhaps best categorised as some sort of hybrid between a shield volcano and a lava flood fissure eruption. The eruption rates may be sustained at a relatively high rate for a long time, well above the rate seen in the formation of shield volcanoes but also never getting to the colossal rates seen in the big fissure eruptions, at least not for any long duration.

Mayotte is an example of a Hell Machine that is erupting now, it is in the deep sea and it may be that most such eruptions are, but there is a historical eruption like this that occurred on land and it offers some tantalising clues.

On the 1st September 1730 an eruption began on the island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. It was relatively large, creating a cinder cone that was ultimately named Caldera del Cuervos, as well as over a few months the similarly sized Caldera del St Catalina and Pico Partido cones. This constitutes what would have been a typical if somewhat larger than average eruption in the Canary Islands, but we now know this first eruption managed to set off the Hell Machine. Eruptions continued into the next year, though it had declined from the initial high rates as expected, the flows were still fed at an impressive volume to sustain over a year. Submarine eruptions well off the west coast and going up all the way to just inland beginning in June of 1731 marked the completion of the hell machine, it was now in full working order, and eruptions marched eastwards back onto land to flood even more of the island. Observations after this are poor as few inhabitants stayed beyond this point but the eruptions continued into 1736, erupting some 5 km3 of lava, constituting the large majority of the volume of all eruptions in the Canary islands in recorded history. Lanzarote has no active central volcano, and has not possessed one for millions of years, the eruption of 1730-1736, or Montanas del Fuego as it is known locally, was fed out of the mantle directly by extensive melting under the base of the crust. Perhaps most notably, all the eruptions from the late Pleistocene and Holocene on Lanzarote before this were on the northern part of the island, the area where the Montanas del Fuego eruption occurred had not been volcanically active for possibly several tens of thousands of years or more, a certain similarity it does share with Fagradalsfjall.

Lava fields on Lanzarote. Source: Becerril et al. ,Assessing qualitative long-Term volcanic hazards at Lanzarote Island (Canary Islands), 2017 Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 17, 1145-1157

The Signs

The first sign of a hell machine is that the eruption is persistent and erupts out of the mantle directly, something clearly the case already. An eruption should also be a rifting event, where the rift is kept open by new magma, and this also seems to be happening, as a dike has formed within the crust going from less than 2 km depth down to at least 7 km, with possibly many feeding points below this that are not resolved. The very high temperature of the lava will also serve to enlarge the pathways, something that may take longer than a week to become evident but which is expected.

So far our eruption is quite small, even tiny, but it has a big future. The first obvious sign could be that the vent increases in output, or that it stays constant but another vent opens. We may already be seeing this, as the vents are rather a lot larger than they were to begin with, and the output appears to have increased. Deflation is not observed along the dike either, which would suggest the eruption is being fed by continued decompression melting in the mantle, a process that may increase accordingly with the eruption rate and set the hell machine in motion.

What will become of the Reykjanes peninsula if this occurs? Perhaps the most direct consequence is that land within perhaps 10 km of Fagradalsfjall is potentially at risk. There is no danger to Reykjavik but Grindavik may suffer if not from the lava then from the gas emission. The effect it will have on the normal Reykjanes cycle is also unknown, most typically the section of the transform fault at Brennisteinsfjoll is the first to go but this time around the section going through Krysuvik was set of by the recent intrusion, leaving Brennisteinsfjoll in a precarious situation. Decompression melting at Krysuvik may well have already begun now in preparation to its awakening, and Brennisteinsfjoll could wake up rapidly following its eventual quake. Eruptions here will resemble those from the Reykjanes Fires, but taking a back seat to the lava flood that is just beginning now at Fagradalsfjall. We are watching history creating itself.

Perhaps this will not come to fruition, it may turn into a shield instead, or even stop. But with all the signs it is looking like the future is grand for the new little volcano.

Chad – 2021

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866 thoughts on “The Hell Machine”

    • Either it is on a coffee-break or it lost steam/height. Little trace of high ash emissions the last 15-20 minutes (+ delay?) on satelite pic loops of last hours. Both on weather us and NOAA/CIMSS. Hm…

      • Was a break. Maybe with dinner. Ash colomn going HEAVY to (at least) 18-20 km now…

    • From very few erupting volcanoes to many, quite a shift the beginning of this year has given us!

    • I think that number is not unusual. The one to keep an eye out is Pacaya. It has impressive lava flows

      • Yup. I’ve been highlighting it here. Andesite flows and at times lava fountains from the summit which have been Etna like. I understand the lava flows are beginning to encroach on some villages.

        • Pacaya is a basalt volcano, no andesite in the Holocene. Same as Fuego actually, both are basalt. Problem is Fuego is so steep lava flows slide down its slopes and break up, so it never has long lava flows, but long pyroclastic flows instead. Its maybe the only volcano to frequently do this, hawaiian-strombolian paroxysms and pyroclastic flows is a rare combination.

          I have seen some videos of Pacaya recently, seems it us basically doing its fissure 8 event, it had long term effusion at flank vents for this past few years now draining it out. Only that here the scale is smaller so no caldera and some magma with high gas content can escape out the summit still.

    • Well, like Scotland, if you don’t like the weather, wait an hour. It’s beautifully clear now.

    • It looks like an Atom bomb cloud. These volcanoes on the Lesser Antilles Arc are nothing to mess around with. Lets just hope it doesn’t get bigger.

      • Atom bomb are mushroom clouds, volcanic look more like cauliflower.

          • Mushroom cloud is formed by a single explosion, its a vortex ring, like a smoke ring but really big. A plinian eruption is like a fountain and the fountain being really hot wants ro rise so it sucks in air. This doesnt do anything in fluid lava but viscous lava gets pulverised so it can be blown around in air, the heat also sucks in air, so a plinian eruption is like a really powerful updraft.

            I dont think there are many situations a volcano can create a true mushroom could.

  13. The entire boxed in area is to be considered hazardous due to the danger of new fissures being able to appear without warning

      • Much to watch these days from Iceland to St. Vincent to Pacaya and Etna too which has been spectacular. So different from last year. Happy volcano watching to all!!

    • Still going on, looks like it has been erupting strong for 2 hours or so. No pyroclastic flows reported so far (thankfully).

  16. hi all is there a new one opened where chopper is behind hill

  17. Thermal cam overlooking Keilir over at Mila.is is showing a new heat signature on the valley to the west of Geldingadalur. Steamclouds were detected on the Meradalir RUV cam from 20:14 pm tonight

    • I really have enjoyed watching your time-lapse videos, much appreciated.

  19. Emergency cars in Geldingadalir camera since 21 20 . Is happening something?

  20. There is a lot of police on Geldingadalir, 4-5 cars + helicopter

    • Awesome! Anyone who says AI will take over the world is right. We’ll die laughing…!

      • Unfortunately, AI is the perfect bureaucrat. It doesn’t know if it’s right or wrong…nor care.

  23. Won’t be long until Norðri and Suðri merge in Geldingadalir. Norðri just needs to grow a bit taller.

      • VEI is volume, but what I think you are most interested in is intensity, how much power the eruption is. Probably the overall volume of the eruptions both here and at Pelee in 1902 was not that big but very high intensity. Soufreire Hills was low intensity, maybe just down to luck really it was very similar to the other two just no total dome destruction.

      • I’m worried that there are still people in the red zone, the area that was completely wiped out by the huge eruption in 1902, they really need to hurry.

  26. Frettir from Verđurstofa Íslands.

    Google translated.

    “Updated 09.04. at 20.30

    The Scientific Council for Civil Protection met at a meeting to discuss the progress of the eruption at Fagradalsfjall. The meeting covered seismic data and measurements, lava distribution, eruption production and pollution associated with the eruption.

    The meeting also discussed the dangers of people visiting the eruption sites and which areas were most dangerous in terms of lava flow, gas pollution and the possible opening of new fissures.

    New cracks can open without notice
    The meeting reviewed GPS measurements and satellite images to assess changes that have occurred in the area since new cracks opened. Signs of change appeared in new eruptions that opened one at Easter and on the eve of Tuesday. However, the changes are very small and foreshadowing before the cracks open are not detectable. There are indications that magma is shallow in the area south of Geldingadalur and northeast of the eruptions and it cannot be ruled out that more eruptions may open in the next few days or weeks. Opening a new eruption fissure without visible warning could pose an acute danger to people. The area covered by this danger is believed to be where the magma reached the surface or from the southwestern part of Geldingadalur and northeast to Litla-Hrúti.

    Steep and high edges on the lava fields at the eruption sites can be unstable. Large incandescent pieces of lava can collapse from them without warning, which can create a great deal of danger. Likewise, magma can shoot out from under the lava rim and that magma can travel very fast.

    The greatest seismic activity in the last two weeks is north of the magma chamber and reaches Keilir. Just south of Keilir, by Litla-Hrút, shallow earthquakes are detected and this activity is closely monitored. Shallow earthquakes can be a sign that magma is looking to the surface. It can therefore not be ruled out that magma will reach the surface north of the magma chamber that reaches Keilir.

    It is likely that with increased lava flow, gas pollution will increase
    Preliminary measurements indicate that lava flow increased further with the opening of the last eruption fissures, but more accurate measurements are expected today. Lava flows from all three cracks and goes down into Meradali and Geldingadalur.

    With the opening of more fissures and increased lava flow, it can be assumed that the amount of gas from the eruption sites has increased compared to what was when only eruptions in Geldingadalur occurred. Most of the degassing comes from the craters but much less from the lava flow itself, but there is talk of degassing when gas that causes pollution is released from the magma into the atmosphere.

    Heavy pollution is detected around the eruptions, but outside it is rapidly declining. The Meteorological Office has installed two gas meters, one at footpath A and the other in Meradalir to get a clearer picture of the gas pollution closest to the eruption sites.”

    There is a map already posted by Bjarki bit above.

  27. This a good page that someone dropped the link to on here. The third webcam shows a lot of police activity and the helicopter against a stunning backdrop of the ridge of fire. It’s strange the other two webcams are in darkness apart from the vents but the third shows a very bright night.

    https://maps.acme.to/gos/

  29. The two bright lavaflows we can see, if they continue like that through the night, then I suspect we will see that central depression starting to fill, and then a connection with Geldingadalir

  35. Another chagrin… La Piton de la Fournaise was said to be in eruption stage late March, then quakes dropped to almost nothing, so eruption off, then quakes burst out over 700 within the last 24 hours… so eruption is now on again.

    I guess we wait to see liquid lava, then say “okay, eruption is on”

  36. Excellent look at sulfur dioxide emissions here.. makes it very plain that a volcano is going off

    • I don’t think it is anywhere near that yet. The VEI scale is exponential. Every point on the scale means 10 times in explosivity. If Mount St. Helens was a VEI5, Pinatubo was a VEI6 or10 times greater and on it goes. The higher the scale goes the worse it will be by 10.. You don’t want to go there. As geolurking used to say.. Don’t be there.

    • This time, when the lava levels drop and the pond solidifies, we can look for new fissures opening to the north.

    • shows that some of the eruption went against the prevailing westerlies so something significant just happened.

      • The ash cloud seems to have reached Canouan Island to the south, around 00:30 UTC 10-Apr-2021

  42. Timestamp on image above is 02:10 BST (British Summer Time – 1 hour ahead of GMT) or 01:10 GMT/UTC – a bug on weather.us displays as IST in case anyone confused. Anyway latest animation at link above.

  43. Where did Norðri’s lava go?

    It’s still sputtering and spouting now and again, but I don’t see the heaving surface of it anymore, and I don’t see any active outlets from it either right now. So, if the level has dropped a lot without it being through Norðri itself, that suggests the pressure feeding these vents has dropped a lot, maybe because the lava has found another outlet.

    Is there a fissure 4?

    If I were in charge of these things, I’d have an overflight of the full length of the dyke, from Keilir to
    Nátthagi and back again, every six hours, with both a video camera recording and a human observer looking out the passenger side of a Cessna, and the flight path such that both of them would be seeing the corridor of land in which fissures might open. (So, a tight oval around the dyke, at a suitable altitude). The video recording could be compared to the previous ones to spot new cracks, steam, grabens forming, and other possible precursor signs, to say nothing of any new eruptive activity. Indeed, such videos could be scientifically invaluable afterward, covering the dyke’s surface path again and again at regular intervals as fissures formed and eruptions developed over time, as a comprehensive documenting of the geomorphological changes during an event of this type.

    Unfortunately, so far as I am aware, aerial surveys and photography of the site have been haphazard rather than systematic in character.

    I’d also have had at least four seismometers set up, two flanking the dyke near each endpoint, to have good resolution and sensitivity to pinpoint small quakes within the block of rock from the top of the dyke to ground level …

    • Is Nordri specifically the left vent of the original volcano, the Gollum vent as Jesper says, or is it the newer fissure that has now made Morgoth cone?

      I do like the Tolkienian names Jesper has given them, I did like to call it Steve I might have even been the first to suggest a name at all but it didnt stick, the only names everyone here seems to understand regardless of their own designation are the ones Jesper has given… 🙂

    • The level of lava in the vents has dropped further. Both Norðri and Suðri seem to be affected. This seems reminiscent of their behavior shortly before fissure 2 opened.

      What is going on?

    • Suðri is almost totally dark now! The level in Norðri is even lower!

      Where is it? There’s a new fissure. It’s probably north of fissure 2. But where? And how long until someone officially discovers it and puts a cam on it?

  44. Found this, a strangely familiar sight yet so far away, it is amazing that volcanism can look so similar despite how different the surroundings look. Does kind of show how superficial the surface we live on really is.

  46. At 3:14 on the MBL cam, it looks a lot like a new fissure opened up. Halfway between #2 and #3.

    • or should that be a new opening on the same fissure?

      Either way, #4 is still going strong.

      • Looks like vigorous, sustained fountains on the MBL cam. But does that look like it may be a bit further back, to the West? Hard to tell as it is a bit out of focus at the moment.

  47. about 3:45, looks like another opening to the right of the the earlier one, but smaller (at least for now).

    • #5? or maybe an extension of #4? Hard to tell on top of the ridge.

      • I’ll go with #5. It’s flaring too much to just be flow.
        It might unzip from 4 to 5!

        • Yep.it’s flaring a lot more noticeably than it was earlier.

      • Not long until dawn, and we can expect some photos to start circulating.
        Really wish RUV would pan their Geldingadalir camera to the left, it would provide a good second view on this activity.

    • 2021 will go down in the history books when it comes to Volcanic eruptions!

  49. Smoking…. yes a new vent and i think one more between the brand new one and the far right one.. “Easter Vent’. i’m so glad no houses like Hawaii….

    • Just had a look -is there now 5 ? Am judging by the rising smoke plums- it seems the wind has died down,hence smoke plumes indicates 5 -daytime will clear that up.

      • It’s like waiting for Christmas morning to open the present to see what we get….. seeing it so close to the first flings is exciting.

  50. Bit annoyed with RUV, they write on their liveblog that a possible new went has opened, refering to the mbl cam, but saying that it isn’t confirmed yet and such. How about just turning your own camera?

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