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”

    • Crystal rich andesite, and also not very hot, making it behave like a silicic magma. The new activity wit hgas rish and hot magma might have formed a lava flow and explosive fountaining if it erupted on its own but it ended up going through the viscous dome so was trapped, then it all blew up. Andesite seems to be very variable in its physical characteristics as a magma, sometimes like at Hekla it is fluid and behaves like viscous basalt, but sometimes like in the Lesser Antilles it behaves like silicic magma.

      • Magmas of La Soufriere are very viscous, the glassy molten portion is dacite (64% SiO2), it is very high in phenocrystals too.

        • I read somewhere that it was andesite, but it does make more sense to be a more silicic magma based on how it looks. I find it interesting how similar it looks to a pahoehoe toe but hundreds of meters long rather than <1 meter. Big domes and flows even get the same ridges on the surface too 🙂

          • Yes, highly viscous magmas do things on a much bigger scale, bigger flow lobes, conduits, magma chambers…

            When there is a lot of crystals, often reaching half of the volume, it throws off the composition of the whole rock, because the crystals are more primitive than the molten part. The whole rock can be basaltic andesite but the actual melt is dacite.

          • The crystals probably make it more viscous too. I also suspect that it is not very hot compared to a basalt, it is incandescent but not bright yellow, maybe it is around 700-800 C.

            Not exactly the same but to me it is a bit like water at 0 C that has ice in it, which I see quite a lot in my workplace and I noticed how much more viscous it behaves compared to water on its own despite being exactly the same chemical, its very interesting to watch actually 🙂

          • The viscosity of water varies a lot with temperature. Try it with cold, warm and hot water

          • True, but im refering to water that is basically icy crystal mush, maybe a bit more melted than that. It is pretty much like very wet snow. Just like normal lava it does flow but doesnt really behave exactly like a true liquid.

            I think that aqueous ammonia or ammonium chloride with high load of ice crystals is believed to be what cryovolcanoes on Titan are made of, or at least something like this, water and ammonia with heavy load of salts, it can stay liquid in its interior but freezes on its surface, although not as fast as water on its own would.
            Titan is definitely a place we need to explore much much more than we have, but that might be a bit off topic for this, actually might be perfect topic for you Albert 🙂

  3. There is definitely a new vent its fountaining a lot now, probably about 40 meters high at least. It might nto exactly be a new fissure though, more a reactivated part of one of the existing ones, but in the end it is all one long fissure anyway just only some of it has surfaced yet

    All the vents are still active yet again with a new fissure, the hell machine is growing. This must be how Carl felt watching Holuhraun 🙂

    • It almost seems like the opposite of what you might expect. Each time, there seems to be a lull in quake activity a few hours before a new vent. Looking at the data, it looks like there was a cluster of quakes around the period it opened up, then went quite quiet again during the morning, before a few more around lunchtime.

  5. Morning guys! Mooorning twins! Good morning fissure fires! Could someone send a ding to it guys to focus the meradalir cam toward new fires?? I’m curious about how big they are… the other cam pov could cover up a part of it with that slope…

  6. At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kr%C3%BDsuv%C3%ADk_(volcanic_system) “Krýsuvík (volcanic system)”:

    “The Krýsuvík system has a tendency to phreatic explosions, often within rifting episodes and/or eruption series. The underground of Reykjanes peninsula is soaked with water (high groundwater level as well as saline sea water in cave systems). There is especially the prehistoric maar complex around Grænavatn at Krýsuvík which has its origin in such explosions connected to a period of effusive eruptions. There was also the explosion of an old borehole in 1999 at Seltún.”

    But why didn’t phreatic explosions occur at the onset of the Geldingadalir/Meradalir fissure eruptions?

    • High up on a hill, they say the maars are in the same valley as Kleifarvatn which is far away from the active rift and theres also not many lava flows there, so this valley must be a lot more waterlogged. It could get explosive if a fissure extends under the ocean but that seems not to happen at Krysuvik, though it does at Svartsengi and Reykjanes. I dont know why that is the case though, maybe the ocean is deeper right offshore at Krysuvik and its weight pushes on the seafloor against the magma, where at the end of the peninsula it is shallow so no resistance?

  7. in desperation, i pulled out my magnifying glass and it works….. so i’m looking thu the glass at the remote on the screen…. Hubby has questions….

    • Yap, and of course we have to thanks to it guys from meralalir, they pan and zoom but the geldingadalir old cam see better. maybe is time to install a brother cam to its point?? there are so many to be watch from this pov…twins, cousin up hill pool, the new fissure head, the infamous cam terorist vent…

  9. RUV camera just moved to the left to look at the new vent.

    There’s a sizable lava river flowing into Geldingadalir through the Western gully, now.

  10. I got a question too..looking to thermal cam…the hottest smoking point is the cousin up hill? am i right? i’m so confused with all this electronic eyes..

    • Nearly all of the lava is flowing into it now too, both the Morgoth cone and the new fissure are flowing into Geldingadalir from its north end, and fissure 2 seems not to be erupting much but is glowing, it might be tubed over and was flowing into Geldingadalir too.

      One thing I noticed and I think a few others did too is that the original cone seems to decline in activity before a new fissure appears. Probably that means this area is where the actual deep feeder is, it also could be because the other vents are only a few days old, the original vent is the only one wide enough to show the pressure changes clearly yet. Maybe in a few weeks all of these vents now will have bubbling lava lakes in them which show this, maybe all at the same elevation too if they are all connected 🙂

      I think maybe that distant hill is still part of geldingadalir though, the outlet on that side is higher than the one behind the cones, probably it will eventually get to that point but an eruption might begin directly in that area before then, its all gettign exiting now,

      • Yes think you right. Drop in activity in first cone before a new fissure start. i notice it also. maybe it all level out after some times. bubbling in harmony together 🙂 Still looks like pressure from deep need more vents still. Then the machin can go on..

        • Yes, when all this began they said the flow of magma into the dike was around 20 m3/s, and when the magma gets near the surface it degasses so the eruption rate of lava is maybe even twice as high as that, though the solid basalt left is close to the DRE. The eruption rate is said to be 8 m3/s, maybe about 10 m3/s just now, so it could feed at least two more vents and maybe 4 or 5 more even, so maybe 9 vents total 🙂 Looks to be about room for 4 or 5 within that immediate danger zone that has been identified, which I presume is because there are open fissures in the ground arount the place which have often been where the vents open in this past few days.

          That also doesnt take into account the possibility of further decompression melting and increased flow, which is entirely possible. The real key point is that all of the vents that have opened are still active and erupting, its not like there is one vent that moves, it just keeps adding more, then they all increase, another one opens and takes controll for a short time, then repeat with an extra member.
          In only a few days the eruption rate has doubled from what it was at before. In another few weeks it could be double again and anything above 20 m3/s is getting beyond the point you can call it a small eruption. Lanzarote was only 30 m3/s when you average it out over its whole duration, and look how big that was in the end.

    • Yes, but looking at the location it could also be a reactivation of the southernmost part of fissure 2. When that fissure opened, there was the main segment to the north, and then a shorter segment slightly further to the south. It looks to me like the new vent is in more or less the same spot as that, in the saddle area between the hills that the main fissures 2 and 3 vents are on.

  13. At last the flow get the way i was thinking after look at maps for some times 🙂 back way in to Geldingadalir in the west side.

      • With all the cameras switching about I have lost the closeup of the twins (original eruption).
        Anyone have a link to a good one?

      • That gas vent I think will probably erupt soon too, it might be a spot where lava already erupted but I dont know if that matters too much anymore, otherwise we get the same problem of naming all the fissures as what happened in Hawaii, I dont think before that there were actually any really detailed up close observations of the start of a major fissure eruption, so it was not expected so many small vents would open to create it, probably was just assumed that big eruptions started big, but evidently this isnt a rule at all, it could even be a thing that is rather specific to Mauna Loa, which is where a lot of data on big fissure eruptions comes from.

        • There was spattering in that area through the night, so there will be lava just under the surface. There may even be some quiet effusion of lava happening there, as it looks like there is a bit of incandescence in the flow field at about 4 o’clock from the smoking area.

          • Would make sense, it looks like most of the lava is still erupting at Morgoth instead of the new fissure, so im sure even more new vents will open in the coming days, which is what IMO is expecting too.

            Is a good thing there are so many webcams, if a new fissure opens in the area there is no way it wont be seen immediately. Even if a fissure opens out of view it will probably be visible from its effect on the existing ones, if they all stop suddenly its probably because a fissure opened on the plain north of Fagradalsfjall and all the lava drained down 🙂

  15. It been a week since Carl’s supposed April’s fools joke. But hasn’t Etna became quiet all of a sudden…
    Coincidence??

    • They’ve run out of tyres. People aren’t driving as much during lockdowns.

  17. it occures to me (if possible) that some future archeologists will think we sacrificed camers to the volcano. 🙂

  18. Just in case anyone is still wondering, I overlayed the most recent map of the eruption on google earth, the distance between Morgoth and Gollum/Smeagol is 777 meters, and the fissures in total are about 950 meters long so far. Probably both the cones are somewhere in the 10s of meters tall range, maybe about 30 meters but possibly a lot more, its impressive how fast these cones grow.

    This is our modern day equivalent to Paricutin 🙂

  20. Truck just drove up and let one man out on the far left and drove off … the man walked farther off to the left… Some body got a ride….

  21. Coffee #2 and I have almost caught up with the laundrey,floor washing and Volcanic activity world wide! Time to reflect. I am a little confused by cam swapping and loss in Iceland but beginning to understand the new topography. What raises my eyebrows is the human activity. I understand and can watch the fly-bys by helicopters etc ( You can see those nicely on the Mila thermal cam https://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/keilir-thermal/)
    But going to Mila cam ( https://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/geldingadalur—volcano/)……. There is a snow covered peninsula towards the back right of the view. There appears to be some heated activity just behind and to the left of it and on the snowy ground I see human figures!! I sincerely hope they are scientists or Civil Defence personnel who know what they are doing…not tourists!
    Like Chad I suspect this odd-ball eruption is going to be a long drawn out fissure eruption of a long fissure with numerous breakouts and so trying to name each will soon be impossible and confusing. I think I will stick to “another vent” for each and possibly a numbering system . Looking behind the peninsular mentioned the activity looks more fissure-like than lava. I hope those humans can make a quick exit stage right!

    • It’s Saturday and the weather is fair so I expect plenty of locals going to see the wonder in the backyard.

  22. With seemingly unobstructed access to go as close as you want weather permitting I would really like to see someone forge a knife in the lava. Would be pretty easy to bring along a small anvil and a hammer 🙂

    • My son does blacksmithing…even his small anvil would be hard to carry and you would have to carry the tools also! !!!! However I suppose Thor managed! Would be good though…what a blade to own!

      • I more mean something like a piece of train track, I have some and have used it as an anvil, it is heavy but only in a way that it isnt easy to pick up in 1 hand, would be pretty easy to carry, and just weld a long spike on the bottom so you can stick it in the ground 🙂

        Or instead of that you could bring an already forged knife and heat treat it in the lava, then it also probably wouldnt matter if there is lava stuck to the metal either as it will fall off in the water, and you could quench it in snow, fire and ice 🙂

        Covid permitting I am going to try and go to Iceland next year. If the hell machine is real this volcano should still be erupting for a while and I will try and forge something in the lava. Maybe not a knife, that is technically a weapon… I dont think a spoon counts as a weapon though 🙂

  23. Something slightly different, it really does look like the yellow “do not cross” barrier around the Geldingadalir camera has worked well, I can’t remember last time I saw someone blocking the view.

  24. The camera pans/zooms around at 09;45:50ish and settles on the original twins for a while and then goes back to wide view.
    It also shows the northern field quite well, and it is rather massive

  25. ugh…. it’s 2am in Alaska and i have to get to bed…. curling tomorrow….. my other great passion.

    • MOts you have hidden talents. I love watching the curling in the Olympics.. A very skillful sport. This stones are heavy too. It must keep you very fit.

      • Sorry, i gave the wrong impression with incomplete information… i’m WATCHING curling… on Sat. mens championships in Canada…

  26. New explosion by far the strongest so far. This is the first time that the explosion is so powerful that the ash cloud is spreading over the island of St. Vincent instead of just drifting out to sea.

    ?w=600&h=436

    • Not precisely sure of what you’re asking, but according to Windy.com, the air temperature at 45000 (FL450) feet is approx -68C – if that helps you any?

    • That is the best video of this eruption I’ve seen so far. It gives scale like no other. Thanks for this!

    • That rootless lava lake has grown up really quickly, could the dam break and unleash its contents over the unsuspecting people? who probably can’t see the molten lake from their angle.

      • It already did drain, you could see it on the main RUV webcam that is has been there since the eruptio nbegan, it panned over to the left and there was a big lava river going into Geldingadalir, where the pond drained. It actually moved over to look at the new fissure but it seems that fissure has slowed down a lot, just like fissure 3 did. Both are still erupting though as I can tell, but maybe more as open vents wit hlava in them but no effusion.

        There is a very clear actual lava lake in the Gollum vent too now, it is maybe 20 meters wide and looks a lot like the lava lake at Ambrym, not a lot of circulation but vigorous fountaining and splashing. It is currently at the edge of the crater and overflowing a bit so probably no new fissure in the next few hours I would expect, if it drains down that is when to look around 🙂
        I doubt it will evolve into a giant lava lake like at Nyiragongo but it looks like this is going to be a long lived open vent for sure. That fact seems not really to actually stop other vents opening though, the dike must have gotten quite shallow under this whole area back in March for pressure increases to drive new eruptions instead of overflowing an existing open vent, which would suggest that all of the ‘danger zone’ identified by IMO will erupt in the near future at some point too.

      • Bilbo, and the newest one Frodo 🙂

        The lava plain near Keilir is about 100 meters lower than the vents now, so if a vent opens anywhere between Keilir and the base of Fagradalsfjall it will not only have the deep supply but also around 100 meters of hydraulic head, so its opening should be spectacular. This would also be the case for a vent opening in Natthagi.

        Jesper can name all the other vents, but I am in advance naming that one Smaug 🙂

        • Actually Natthagi is only 70 meters above sea level, it is over 200 meters lower than the vents now, a vent opening there is going to be like a mini Laki. That one can be Smaug, if a vent opens actually on the side of Keilir or on its summit that one is getting the name of Mt Doom.

          Fagradalsfjall means ‘pretty valley mountain’, not a very appropriate name anymore I think, will need to be renamed as Mordorfjall when this eruption is over.

          🙂

          • I was going to suggest Saruman and Sauron for vents opening closer to Keilir, then if Sauron goes on to build a shield it would be renamed Mt Doom. Keilir already has a name.

      • Someone who burnt brighly, died early and caused a lot of damage? Feanor, for sure.

  32. DG DEFIS #StrongerTogether
    @defis_eu
    #ImageOfTheDay

    The La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent erupted yesterday after decades of inactivity, spewing plumes of ash and smoke & forcing thousands to evacuate

    The @CopernicusEMS
    #RapidMapping has been activated

    #Sentinel3 Satellite
    imaged the plume

  33. With the NW corner of Geldingadalir rapidly filling, I expect the slopes from the twins (fissure 1) to shallow, which should allow lava to find it’s way to the NE exit towards Meradalir. Although as the southern exit from Geldingadalir already seems overtopped, how much goes where will be interesting.
    Of course eye witness confirmation of the exit status would be nice.

  36. La Soufriere is producing significant gas and ash. I wonder how much is going into the ocean? Would expect some algal blooms in the next few weeks and some cooling effects as it circulates in the upper atmosphere. Is there any data base of ash emissions vs height and composition to predict possible affects? I suspect several Geoengineering projects will be interested in sampling data.

    • A good comment underneath that where the expert suggests that at least 5 Tg of SO2 required to be injected into stratosphere to affect climate, an order of magnitude higher than this.

  43. Did a quick sounding check, and the tropopause over St. Vincent Is. is at around 150 mb, or about 48-50K’.
    It is possible there has been some aerosol and ash injection into the lower stratosphere/Junge layer….. but the lapse rate above the the tropopause is pretty stable, hence not a whole heck of alot of vertical motion to help suspend the heavier particles..so it’s not surprising to see reports of ashfall well away from the eruption.
    Also note that near-surface winds are from the ENE below ~ 5,000′ with moderate westerly winds aloft…. which explains the “seemingly” upwind ashfall over the southern sections of St. Vincent.
    https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/?model=gfs&region=watl&pkg=mslp_pcpn&runtime=2021041006&fh=6

    • It is not easy to tell from data available, but as the latest Volcanic Cloud Monitoring — NOAA/CIMSS data shows lots of ash/dust measured at 18-20 km height (in black, and highest height available, so could even be higher) that would suggest this has reached the stratosphere.

      https://volcano.ssec.wisc.edu/imagery/view/#sector:Southern_West_Indies_750_m::instr:ABI::instr:ABI–MESOSCALE2::instr:MODIS::instr:SEVIRI::instr:VIIRS::sat:all::image_type:Ash_Height::endtime:latest::daterange:60

      But again, fairly unconsistent with avg temperature in the stratosphere (at 10-20 km) which is said to be around -45 deg C. On average I would add. Readings down to -80 C has been mentioned. See Goes-16 ch. 11 (IR) brightness temperature (C) in this link.

      https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/sat/satlooper.php?region=goes16-meso2&product=ir

      Recorded temps (C) from emissions does not fit “general info” on the Stratosphere. And Troposphere T (C) is lower. See here;

      https://earthhow.com/stratosphere/

      This would place emissions in the upper mesosphere/mesopause based on reported T (C). That is obviously NOT the case. Lower strat/tropopause T do vary.

      When following reports from VAAC it seems the highest FL advisory has been at FL550 which is apx 17 km. However this is for ash and particles and the NOAA/CIMSS highest readings would probably be for the smallest particles. When looking at traces for SO2 it seems to fit the “top-level”/dust findings when looking at temperature/pressure in the charts/maps shown by you and others on VC lately. The latest loop on the tropicaltidbits link shows the T (C) at top of column between -70 and -80.

      Data shows much more and stonger puffs observed to 18-20 km today than yesterday – and more SO2 – so my clear bet is this injects something in to to the stratosphere. How much is difficult to tell though. Probably not much thus far.

      More on the stratosphere;

      https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/stratosphere

      Looking at windy wind at FL above FL450 is not available so it is difficult to use to try to see consistant confirmity between wind and smoke/ashcolums reported height at FL550. Wind at 150hPa/FL450 is from NW at 38 knts from the eruptionsite and that is clearly not the direction of the cloud (mainly going E) so there is a clue too. And would indicate the column rise fairly fast? Since it “avoids” serious distribution of ash/dust towards SE. Maybe. I don’t know…. 😉

      Any thoughts?

  44. GOES 16 is currently showing the newest eruptive plume coming off Soufriere. Looks very convective per the satellite.
    Sure wish I could figure out how to post a quick movie…but alas, just a link fer now.

    https://col.st/hPv7o

  48. There are lots of mobile videos from the La Soufrière eruption on Saint Vincent on YT with poor/terrible filming but this one is the least bad I have found so far. I do not know or vouch for the channels content or views but still. Eps. apx. 2:20 out, later nighttime volcanic lightening and rings. Apx. 10 min video. I enjoyed it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZYEdzazss&ab_channel=WhenTheEarthIsAngry

    Search tip looking for new videoes on YT; search La Soufriere and select “uploaded last hour”. Happy hunt!

  49. This is certainly not a “tourist” eruption. Back in December when the lava dome began pushing up and it was called an effusive eruption my attention was raised. It didn’t look very effusive to me though effusive is a broad term. It looked dangerous. And knowing the history of the area I was afraid this might happen. Pray for those people.

    • Good heavens… that’s 175 km by the crow’s flight!

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