The Plume of Ballareldar?

/ 28/04/2021

Stunning photograph of the eruption. Photograph by Haussman Visuals.

To me the part of a volcano that is visibly erupting is the least exciting part. Perhaps a better way of stating it is, that it is only the effect of the cause. This is obviously not true to most people on the planet, so I think I owe everyone an explanation.

And that explanation is especially important since we need to look deep into the volcano, to understand its future.  

Like most people I can obviously spend hours looking at lava bombs being hurled, and lava slowly filling valleys. But, getting to know the hidden innards of a volcano, and understanding their functions, is making the experience even better. 

So, let us take a journey through the volcanic features of the Ballareldar from the bottom up. During this journey I will try to impart the wonders I see, and why this cute little tourist eruption is one of the most scientifically important eruptions ever witnessed. 

To do this we must employ many tools of the trade, petrochemistry, geophysics, chemistry and garden average physics, to be able to look below the ground we walk on. As I go on, I will try to tell you what we know, what we can assume, and what are open questions to science. 

 

In the beginning there was the mantle 

The Geology department at the University of Iceland did wonders in the opening stages of the eruption taking samples and analysing them at breakneck speed. I wish we had later data at hand, but I think that is saved for some juicy future articles by the scientists in question. Which is fair enough, and they have let a few tidbits out that is highly intriguing. 

What we do have is still enough to make me feel like a kid visiting his first candy store. Because things are sufficiently “out there” to make my eyebrows lift quite substantially. 

Regular lava in Reykjanes is indicative of Mid Oceanic Rift Basalt (MORB) origin, coming up from the Mohorovic discontinuity between the crust and the mantle, it is normally partially evolved (fractionated), and has ample amounts of inclusions indicating that it has resided in the crust for a while. 

Normally you will see a medium amount of sulphur in the lava, and it will be fairly cool compared to the plume derived lava coming out nearer to the Icelandic mantle plume, and the plume derived lava is among the most sulphur rich lavas on the planet. 

Image by the Geology Department of the University of Iceland.

If we look at the current magma being ejected as lava, we find that it is, first of all, unusually hot. The confirmed temperature is 1190 ºC from the first observations, but I have seen later unconfirmed figures up towards the 1220 ºC. 

Higher temperatures than 1190 ºC is by far not impossible, remember that the official temperature was taken early on when the magma had been cooled and partially quenched as it passed between the cold sides of the 7km long and 15 km high dyke leading from the deep feeder conduit near Keilir, all the way to the surface. 

As the surrounding rock is heated by the passing hot magma, over time the cooling effect will diminish and the temperature of the lava will go up a bit. 

As far as I know the previous temperature record holder in Iceland was the Holuhraun III eruption at 1180 ºC. Here we had an origin that definitely was from a well-formed mantle plume, yes it had partially resided inside inside of Bárdarbunga and had travelled for a long stretch across a very long dyke. 

But a big part of it was fresh material from inside the mantle that was newly arrived. On top of that the flow rate in the dyke was large enough to heat it very well indeed, decreasing the cooling effect considerably. 

The telltale low TiO2 and high MgO. Image by the Geology Department of the University of Iceland.

The temperature of the lavas erupted during the Ballareldar is high enough to be seemingly congruent with plume origin.  

If we look at the regular lavas erupted at Reykjanes through the eyes of groundmass glass, we see that it usually contains about 250ppm of Sulphur, but the current lava is erupting an average of 1140ppm of sulphur. 

And we do know that the Icelandic plume produces record breaking amounts of sulphur as the associated volcanoes erupts. 

Here it is easy to think that what we are seeing is a tendril of magma that has squeezed itself merrily along the underside of Iceland until it arrived below Reykjanes during the last 800 years. Looking at the evidence so far, it is not a bad idea. 

But we need additional data to prove or disprove our little plume origin hypothesis. This is the point where petrochemistry shines. 

Rare Earth Minerals chart. Even the lantanides are unusually absent. The Geology Department of the University of Iceland.

The first we see is that the lava is rich with olivine, a crystal that is called Peridot and Chrysolite when used as a gemstone. It forms in the upper mantle, so now we know that at least the magma is from the upper mantle. 

Olivine comes in three distinct flavours, the magnesium flavour called foersterite (peridot) that can be green or transparent. It can only form above 400km depth, below that you get wadsleyite. 

The other common one is the reddish-brown fayalite (chrysolite) that contains iron, this forms at lower pressures than forsterite, so as such it is not pointing towards deep mantle origin. 

I will just briefly mention the third flavour, the whacky Manganese olivine named tephroite. From a volcanologic standpoint, it is the least understood of the 3. It can also have any colour visible to man, since it has a propensity to make love to pretty much any other metal. It is the penultimate slut in geology, making it into a darn good precursor when looking for mineralisations to mine. 

The Ballareldar lavas are rich in magnesium olivine (forsterite), this means that the origin of the magma is somewhere between 15-400 kilometres down. We also know that many Icelandic lavas are forsteritic, so it seems like we have once more proved a plume provenance. 

Now we need to compare the Ballareldar eruption (2021-) and the Holuhraun III eruption (2014-2015. The first thing that we see is that Holuhraun III has less olivine (forsterite) than Ballareldar has. 

If we look at the weight percentage of TiO2 at Holuhraun III we find that it is at 1.75 to 1.9%, whereas at Ballareldar we see a figure of 0.9%. On the other hand, we see weight percentages of MgO at around 6.7% at Holuhraun III versus 8.8-9% in the Ballareldar samples. 

Did we just find a spanner crashing into the spokes of the wheel of our hypothesis? Can we save our our pet theory? 

Yes, sadly our pet theory dies here in the warm embrace of TiO2, this is due to us knowing that the distance from the Icelandic plume center does not indicate decreasing TiO2, or vice versa. Plume derived forsteritic basalt does not drop in TiO2 with half. Bummer! 

At best we have a partial influence of the Icelandic plume, but sufficiently small to not explain the sulphur and the temperature as such. 

Here one could come up with the crutch-theory that it is another unknown plume at work. That is amply gunned down by geophysics, since we know from tomography mapping of the mantle, using measured differences in the travel speed of sound indicating temperature variations in the mantle. In simpler terms, we have a fairly good map of where there are plumes, or not, in the mantle. 

There is obviously no special plume under Reykjanes. At this point we will have to wait for new data from young strapping Ph.D. students. 

 

New data 

The gassy belly of the beast. Image by the Geology Department of the University of Iceland.

This is written a couple of days later as an addendum. I had already edited in the article when I found new data from the geology department at the University of Iceland. Problem is that the new data made mince-meat of what I had written above. 

My first instinct was to do a complete rewrite of the article, so that it would no look like I used the southern end of northbound donkey as a brain. Instead, I am leaving out the first part as it is, as an example of how new data is driving scientific discovery and creates the need for new models and hypothesis-formation. 

I love the smell of fresh science in the morning, well that and coffee. So, without further ado we will boldly go where no person has gone before. 

Let us begin with what is the same. The sulphur content is same at the high levels, and the release of SO2 is keeping steady at 2000 to 3000 tons per day. The variations closely follow eruption flow rates, so we can safely say that it will not increase nor decrease over time in any significant manner. 

Several people have asked me lately about the noticeable increase in “smoke and gas” from the vents. And yes, there has been an increase in the visible gas volumes at the volcano. Problem is that there is no increase in release of CO2 or SO2 from the volcano, and this is to be expected since the lava flow rates are constant while the Sulphur content has been consistently high. 

So, why then are we seeing more gas? There are two reasons for this. The first is that it is likely that water vapour has increased due to the magma moving through a number of aquifers, and that a few of those contain super-critical fluids. 

I have however not seen any data on water content, so this is speculative. The second reason is simple: from an actively erupting vent you have sufficient thermal uplift to chuck the gas straight up and out of the way as a visual hindrance. 

That is why we see more visible gas from dying colder vents; they do not have the energy for effective thermal convection. 

In short, the gas increase is mainly more a question of altitude than attitude. 

Petrochemical differences over time. Image by the Geology Department of the University of Iceland.

Now, let us talk about the differences. MgO has increased from the previously high number of 8.8-9 percent, now it is 9.7-10 percent. This means that there is more forsterite in the mixture. This in turn points towards greater depth. 

Now, let us turn to the TiO2, it has increased from the low number of 0.9% to 1.5%. These two increases in TiO2 and MgO indicates a deeper origin. 

This indicates that the original magma most likely was of Icelandic Plume origin and that the plume head is slightly wider than previously believed. It also points towards some process depleting the magma during its long and slow movement towards Reykjanes from the plume core under Kistufell. 

One solution that is likely, is that TiO2 due to it’s higher melting point trends towards attaching itself to the bottom of the crust in a process called underplating, whereas the MgO does not. 

Now, here we arrive at a monster of a question. Was the eruption caused by arriving deeper material that first pushed up the depleted magma under the eruption site? Or, has the eruption depleted the supply of depleted magma and new deeper material is going up to fill the gap? 

If it is the latter, we are most likely seeing a smaller version of the process that created the Icelandic plume to begin with, eruptions causing a void creating lowered pressure increasing the melt process at depth.  

At the Icelandic plume this process has been running for 14.4 million years now, so it has burrowed itself deep and become a true monster among plumes. Whereas Ballareldar is too small in the greater scheme of things, and it will putter out when the eruption dies out. 

I should here point out that we do not know which one of the two options given above is true, I lean towards thel atter idea of burrowing. But, as per usual, until a strapping young Ph.D. Student has done the heavy lifting and done a garnet study we will not know for sure. 

 

Final words 

What I would like to see is a study of garnets in lava. Various garnets form at different depth in the mantle, so have a garnet study would be helpful to constrain further the depth of the formative melt. Want to get a doctorate in petrochemical volcanology..? Go garnets, go! 

I had initially planned to write about the dyke, and the future for the Ballareldar. I had also planned to write about the name Ballareldar. That will though have to wait for part two of the article since I got rolling with the petrochemical part of life. 

So, in part two we will leave the mantle behind and become crusty indeed. 

CARL REHNBERG 

Sources: 

characterization_of_the_1st_and_2nd_day_of_volcanic_products_from_geldingadalahraun_2021.pdf (hi.is) 

Microsoft Word – trace_isotope_report_v1r2.docx (hi.is) 

MS Template (skemman.is) 

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640 thoughts on “The Plume of Ballareldar?”

  2. I don’t have the same depth of geological or volcanological knowledge, but I also found the lead-up to the eruption more interesting than the eruption itself. If I had greater knowledge, I would probably also find the reasons more interesting than the eruption. At heart I am a scientist and thriveon the unknowns, but to fully develop that quest for knowledge, I need more than I have to start with. If I was younger, with less other things to occupy my brain, I’d go looking for that extra knowledge, but life usually gets in the way :P.

    • You can find a lot here to learn, Richard. I got more into this after discovering Hawaii and the Pacific by Albert, Caldera by Henrik, Wrangell Mountains (3 Parts) by Albert and other pieces. Well explained, also by Carl and Hector i.e., and with love for the matter.

    • Another collapse at 15:54 or so, but unfortunately I could not see it head on, but from the back.

  4. A small comment on Mapsism.
    The Dude is as bad as Dutchincense is.
    Hysterical Knob turned to 11.

      • Is Myspace even a thing nowadays? I thought it died out with Dinosaurs like me. 🙂

      • As the small collapses caused a tiny bit of ash he/she went off all over the internet screaming about the eruption having become explosive… Sigh.

  5. Both parts of volcanos interest me. The spectacular fire show above ground engages my primative brain (oopretty and Fire keep cave bear out) and the underpinnings entertain my ego with knowledge. Better stuff than most stuff on the Telly. Also enjoyed Carl letting the thought patters remain and to acknowledge new findings instead of starting over. Donkeys need both ends. Looking forward to part two. Best!mots

  6. “the southern end of northbound donkey as a brain” *wipes tears away from eyes* oh thank you for that belly laugh!

    It’s never bad to admit to new data coming along and changing everything. This is how sciencing works, although not too many people seem to realise this. Like covid-19 advice, it’s perfectly logical and possible to start off in one place (fearing fomites), but end up at the end of a circuitous journey completely somewhere else (airborne droplets necessitating medical grade masks, our family uses N95 and N98 grades, protecting both ourselves and others. I’ve tested negative in the Imperial College general background covid-19 research project, so this definitely works).

    I’m fascinated by the small-scale temperature changes. Everything is so logical when interpreted with reference to the passage through and heating of the country rocks. Is the magma hot enough to melt any of the crustal material through which it has flowed? Would this contaminant show up? Is there a reservoir of Titanium-rich goo stuck to the underside of the crust? Could that ever reach the surface or be mined in any way? So many silly little questions spring to mind. and underplating… sounds like a gusset in corsetry…

    Peridots and chrysolites and garnets. If I remember correctly, garnets and peridots and spinels and emeralds (with a large scattering of diamonds) were stars of the Mughal exhibition that I visited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London a few years ago. It’s fascinating what these things can tell us if we choose to study them.

    • One short answer:
      Yes, it is hot enough to partially melt the crust and bring along remnants of said crust.
      You can find pictures of it in one of the links in the article.

    • An ancestor of mine was a diamond prospector in 1871 (when there was a New Rush at what later became Kimberley). He was an unlucky prospector – neighbouring claims found valuable stones of many carats, while his were invariably small, cracked and yellow. We do have though a small paper packet with some rough garnets and a few cut ones, with his writing on, so I assume they are ones he found while looking for diamonds (he mentions there being plentiful garnets in one diary entry).

      • Interesting.
        My late father used to listen politely to me blethering on about whatever hill had just exploded… Never really replied , but asked one or two questions.
        But this was so typical of him.Such a reticent man. At his memorial event various people got up to speak and tell tales of their adventures with him ( and he remained adventurous right to the end).

        This guy I didn’t know spoke about how he came to visit my dad whilst he was in his “inventing shed” working on building a telescope for his home made mobile observatory. They shared an interest in astronomy. My father dropped something and swore in Swahili…Which this fellow understood ! So they fell to talking , and it turned out that my father’s first gainful employment was to wander around the mountains of Lesotho looking for traces of Kimberlite.

        Yet when I’d been talking about volcanos… He said nothing.

        I expect he was waiting for my level of understanding to reach his. Bloody typical !

          • That was a very interesting little journey, going through the history of development of the mine and all of those photos.I never spent any time in the Cape in the relatively short time I was there (’70-’71) apart from a 4 day stopover in the harbour, Cape Town on the journey back to the UK aboard the Edinburgh Castle with my siblings and my mother… My father having (by necessity) slipped out of the country to evade the Security Police.

            Most of my time there was spent either in the Durban area, or the small town of Viljoenskroon in the Free State. But when we were forced to disappear from our home in Yellow Wood Park near Durbs, and then my uncle’s home in Westville, my dad plotted a course toward the back country around the Eastern edges of Lesotho for a short while before moving on to my grandmother’s house in Viljoenskroon.

            It wasn’t until I started asking questions of my mother, decades later, that I realised that he hadn’t just stuck a pin in a map at random. He knew that back country. It was less than 10 years ago that I began to find out exactly why the security police, the “secret police” if you prefer, were so keen to lay hands on him… But that’s another story, much of which had happened a couple of years before I was born.

      • Garnets are to be found all over Southern Africa, derived from the many volcanic periods through the tumultuous geologic history of this ancient land. They are especially plentiful in the rivers below the 4000 ft deep Stormberg lavas capping the high Drakensburg Mountains. Commonly called African Rubies colloquially.

  7. Thank you for confirming the excess sulfur content. I do remember seeing the old south cone spit balls of burning sulfur into the air and they would burn bluish white in the air, come back down and splash on the cone a bit, then suddenly wink out as the sulfur cooled below burning point. One of the other more recent cones did this too, it looked almost like a Christmas tree, with blue, white, yellow, orange and red lights falling down and twinklng out.

    • There’s a really whitish/yellowish area on the original RUV camera, below vent 3 or 4. I was wondering if that might be sulhur, it’s been there for several days.

  8. Thank you, Carl!
    Now this is really interesting. The Reykjanes peninsula has a history of eruption cycles (dare I say the word) of which our new one appears to be the start of a new eruptive period. The periodicity is around 1,000 years*. Normally the area is associated with low-fractionated MAR magmas with some plume interaction. So that poses two questions:
    1. If this is the ‘business as usual’ reawakening of the peninsula, why should today’s processes and magma be substantially different from previous ones?
    2. Is this current eruption similar in composition to the nearby older Vatnsheidi sequence? That showed slightly unusual results.*
    2. (Big leap into the unknown here…) Might the seismic (tectonic) unrest and primitive magma be very early indications of a “rift jump” beginning, from Reykjanes to a new point south? Surtsey’s magma tended towards primitive as the eruption progressed and there has been speculation on this possibility.**

    As usual, no expert so feel free to lava-bomb my ideas! 🙂

    Refs:
    * Gee, M.A.M. et al, (1998) Crustal Processes: Major Controls on Reykjanes Peninsula Lava Chemistry, SW Iceland. Journal of Petrology, 39(5),
    ** Schipper, I.C. (2015) The Surtsey Magma Series. Scientific Reports, 5.

    • Note unscientific error in question numbers. Sorry. Blame evolving thought processes and lack of Swedish coffee. (And I blame my editor – the other half of my brain).

    • This is the case of good questions yielding bad, or confused answers…
      1. This is the multi million question. Why all of a sudden are we back to magmas not seen for several thousands of years. Normal cycles do not show this flavour of magma. Why now, what are the differences between todays magma, and the similar magma of oldendays? Sigh, now I am even making more confused questions in answer.
      2. We would need to compare those two when the full analysis data is out from the new one.
      3. If anything it would indicate a rift jump back to Reykjanes. I do not think this is rift jump related, I think this is associated to the current plume pulse intersecting with a regular rift cycle at Reykjanes, but this is just wild speculation.

      I must say I am impressed with annotated referenced comments 🙂

      • Thanks for being kind to me!
        Your article was fascinating in raising these sorts of issues and ideas. I’m no scientist, but trying to figure what is going on below is intriguing. Thanks for stirring the interest!

    • I read somewhere (still trying to find the reference again – that’s Google for you) that Iceland’s Pleistocene volcanoes are re-awakening. Perhaps there is a cycle for them, given there is for the Holocene ones.

      • Next eruption then at Snaefell, the poorly known one that is northeast of Vatnajokull not the tall picturesque one across the sea from Reykjavik.
        🙂

  9. Carl you say ” I had also planned to write about the name Ballareldar.”

    For me as a starter to understand things a bit more perhaps a para on this would be useful. Any wiki search on the name doesn’t produce much.

    After that I’ll do another read to try to understand your post a bit more, but very informative as ever, trying to explain what is happening to a very ordinary bloke like me.

    This comment was put in the dungeon by our deamon. It happens a lot, and to all commenters not recognized. Future comments should appear without delay – admin

    • If Balla is from the Roman languages it means dance. That would fit.

      • Well… It is ballar-eldar… In icelandic, ballar is the genetive for böllur, which is a slightly old school pretty crude term for a certain part of the male anatomy.

        So I can say that I am very curious why Carl chose that for first compound of his name for this eruption because I sure had a nice laugh at it

        • There is actually another meaning to Ballar… But I will return to why that is fitting.

          In this case it started at Geldingadalur, and as you make vallacks (geldings) you get residual scrotums laying about.

          I do here note that there is a tradition of naming volcanoes in a rather colourfull way in Iceland, the East and West Geirvörtur just to mention one example. No, let us not translate Upptyppingar shall we, this is after all a children friendly place of learning. 🙂

          So, completely according to Icelandic naming tradition and following the naming strategy for the area with it’s horse theme.

        • My first reaction chuckle and “does he even know what it means?”

          Thank you Carl for a very informative post.

    • This comment was put in the dungeon by our deamon. It happens a lot, and to all commenters not recognized. Future comments should appear without delay – admin

      I’m not sure what this means. Why should I be recognised I’m a new poster?

      In the fullness of time all shall be revealed. Dragons work in Mysterious Ways.
      /Another Admin

      • OK I’ll come clean I’m a retired accountant living in London that likes volcanoes.

        Fair cop guys

        Where are the handcuffs?

      • No, you are not really a new commenter… You’ve been around for quite a bit.

        This is the problem: We have a few more commenters who see their comments go to the dungeons first. This is a side effect from the recent changes in the log-in procedure, but after we manually approve a number of your comments, the system normally learns and will start releasing your comments without delays and dungeonisations…

        • No, you are not really a new commenter…

          Why post that I am not recognised then?

          You are right. I have posted in the past with another name probably when Holuhraun was erupting and before that for Eyfjall, but possibly not with my current email address.

          Though I do seem to remember having similar problems with moderation before which I believe was undeserved.

          I only really turn up on here for Icelandic eruptions.

          How did this end up in here?
          This comment was initially visible before.
          /Admin

          • Exactly the same thing happened to me too. I thought it may be due to the fact that VC moved domain names during my absence. Somehow I’ve managed to end up with two accounts, I think.

        • No, you are not really a new commenter…

          Why post that I am not recognised then?

          You are right. I have posted in the past with another name probably when Holuhraun was erupting and before that for Eyfjall, but possibly not with my current email address.

          Though I do seem to remember having similar problems with moderation before which I believe was undeserved.

          I only really turn up on here for Icelandic eruptions.

      • It didn’t quite say you are a new poster, just that the deamon puts a lot in the dungeon, including all unrecognized commenters. It sometimes attacks known commenters too, I don’t know why. I should say in its favour that we also receive a lot of unsavoury spam comments and it is thanks to the deamon that you don’t get to see them. So we try not to be too hard on our deamon when on occasion it is a bit too suspicious.

    • I will explain the name in the next instalment, and how I get away with naming it. 😉
      Basically, I got a free shot at naming the event, and I ran with it.

  10. Thanks for the article Carl.
    Those are what the brain craves, but rarely gets 🙂 So how long does a ‘Garnet’ study usually take? A couple years?
    Are there enough strapping young Ph.D. students in Iceland, in the right fields of study, for the study? Or maybe some geezers? 🙂
    As mentioned in the ‘Stars Die’ note above, would be nice that have some raw materials make it’s way up!

    • I answered my own question. A Garnet study takes about 3 years, and costs about $750.000 US Dollars.

      • Yes, so the Garnet Part of this series will take quite some time to do.
        But, we are not talking about pressing garnets, just analysing the existing garnets typologically (if they do exist).

        • Ohhh…. Garnets do look like grapes actually!

          (Collection of garnets from El Hoyazo, Spain.)

          Pressing Garnacho grapes is great fun though, ‘studying’ them afterwards was a delicious thing to do as well.

  11. In this article the following:

    “So, why then are we seeing more gas? There are two reasons for this. The first is that it is likely that water vapour has increased due to the magma is moving through a number of aquifers, and that a few of those contain super-critical fluids.”

    Can magma moving through an aquifer increase the risk of maar forming phreatomagmatic explosions in the area of Geldingadalir/Meradalir?

    • No on the Maar, yes on creating a hydrothermal field in the fulness of time.

      • What are the specific conditions for phreatomagmatic maar forming eruptions and why isn’t that likely in the area of Geldingadalir/Meradalir?

  12. “My first instinct was to do a complete rewrite of the article, so that it would no look like I used the southern end of northbound donkey as a brain. Instead, I am the first part as is as an example of how new data is driving scientific discovery and creates the need for new models and hypothesis-formation.
    I love the smell of fresh science in the morning, well that and coffee. So, without further a due we boldly go where no person has gone before.”

    Brilliant. Work in progress. I love to see scientists’ creativitiy and progress by accumulating knowledge allowing early error. But honestly, it doesn’t sound like an error because of the sulphur.

    Question: Is that big plume really so new? I am thinking of the NAIP (North Atlantic Igneous Province), the plume being under Greenland then. Same plume or different plume? Sorry, in case it’s a stupid q.

    • No, it is a very good question.
      During the NAIP Greenland was not there, so another plume. There’s arguments about where that plume ended up, or if it died.

      This is actually a question that I have been intending to solve for about the last 7 years or so. Life is sadly getting in the way of it. But, we can be completely sure that Iceland is not the right plume, nor was the Icelandic plume responsible for the SIberian Traps.
      We know when the Icelandic Plume started, and probably how and why. Also stuff that I have planed to write about for a loooong time. 🙂

      • Or, stated as another stupid question: Do plumes have tides?

        • I think we best avoid the word tide…
          But they do definitely have cycles.

      • I can imagine. It’s very interesting to connect it to the past. Thinking of those LIP I wonder whether earth was always lucky (thinking of Venus). In the media things like eruptions are made up from a doomsday perspective, in reality it seems to be a very lucky lively planet. The first fish they found in the lake near St.Helens they called Harry after the old chap who died there. Nature recovers. Earth’s time scale is just different.

        • I think Earth was lucky … primarily by being, barely, far enough from the sun. Although current work on the habitable zone has us barely beyond the inner edge. With the sun brightening by 10% per billion years the Venusian catastrophe is our future… and we’d best not speed things along that path ourselves.

          • Moving asteroids, wow. I had not known this piece. Sounds so simple. Thanks for the link.

          • Col, I don’t think it’s that simple. Merkur is even closer to the sun. 1. Venus might have been hit by an Asteroid the size Albert describes in one of his pieces (link further down). 2. Venus doesn’t seem to have a magnetic field. 3. Venus turns the other way around. 4. Venus has strange plate tectonics, practically absent. The idea is that the whole crust was renewed in one single session several hundred (perhaps600) mya. The whole surface seems to be of the same age. 5. It is absolutely possible that there was never any water, especially if Earth’s water came in with an Asteroid. And there are not too many Asteroids that seem to have water. 6. Earth’s moon might be in an ideal distance. Certainly more points.

            Summary: If Venus renewed the entire crust in one single blow it must have gotten extremely hot then. So, it’s an entirely different story, probably.

            And as Merkur did not do such a thing, it seems, it shouldn’t have a,th. to do with the sun or at least not only. I’d rather suspect that Venus is one Large Igneous Province, s.th. like Iceland next to the Azores, next to Indonesia and so on. But I don’t know. It would be very expensive to send a good device down there that endures a few days. I think it’s a mystery.
            But I should add that most scientists think that there might have been water once.

            Another volcanic hell is Io, and it’s definitely very far from the sun and not a planet.

            There are a lot of strange things. Like Mars being too small basically and the big gap between Mars and Jupiter.

            Well, anyway, Earth’s plate tectonics and magnetism remind me of an organism with a pump (heart) and a digestive system (subduction), water like blood. Alive.

      • Hi Carl, this is a question from a strict amateur with a long held interest in geologic history. Big picture situation, Gondwana and Laurasia sit on opposite sides of the Tethys ocean. Gondwana breaks up and two major fragments move North, India and Africa. Now here is the question, which hit Laurasia first. Because if India hit first, the impact as it dived under present day Asia may have bent and stressed Europe, thus providing the extension to form the Siberian Traps. As Africa later slammed into Europe pushing up the Alps, it pushes Europe North, the rotation pushing up the Ural Mts,turning the area of extension int an area of compression, shutting down the Traps.

        • The Siberian traps came first. The closure of the Tethys was quite a complex event. The first bit to close as I think the fragment from Turkey to Tibet. The Neothethys formed behind it and this was the ocean that later carried India.

    • Aaah, the North Atlantic Igneous Province, beautiful plumage….

  13. This Youtuber, Green Iceland Vid has a good up to date flyover of the area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2XC6dRCnm0 . Give him some love.

    I’m curious. Are all but this cone now inactive? Judging by the lava fields, I get the impression some cones are still erupting magma and it’s flowing out, but buried under clinker?

  14. How nice of those helicopter people to reset the MBL cam. Indeed a lot more lava is gushing out the bottom of the cone now.

  15. 1190 C is competely normal eruption temperature for many ocean ridges.
    Many ocean ridges.. haves astenosphere temperatures of 1340 C and Some
    superfast spreaders in the pacific probably erupts 1280 C lavas. At ocean ridges the melting source is close to the surface and magmas can rise without cooling alot on the way up.

    The major Mantle Plume under Iceland may have temperatures of over 1550 C a bit down.
    But the magmas generaly always cools on the way up. At Vatnajökull its often stoored in huge chambers and stoorage regions. Laki for example erupted at 1150 C and many Grimsvötn shallow magmas are close to 1100 C.

    Thats why both Ridge and Plume volcanoes can erupt at the same temperatures as it cools on the way up. Hawaii only goes sligthly above 1220 C normaly at Some summit eruptions and many flank eruptions are well below 1180 C.

    The Hottest Icelandic lavas ever measured came from Kistufell and was picrite and erupted at 1280 C sometime in the early holocene. And still cooled as it rised from its above 1500 C origin.

    Thanks Carl for this article .. its very intresting with the high titanium content of the current eruption. Webcamera here https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I1I-0PUhFmU&fbclid=IwAR0BY3wjmpoGODRFz-ucI2iz-iHsWbswt2CtxUhgWDqVCfvQMRkf2_hRZgU

    • The hottest eruptions on Earth are magmas rising directly from a Plume
      But Thats rare as its almost always stoored and cooled inside established plumbing systems. Iki and Kistufell reached 1280 C .. and still far below their more than 1500 C origins in the partial melting accumulation zone

      Fagradalshraun is Probaly tapping from upper partw of a deep accumulation region Thats yet still feed by deeper ridge decompression melting. But the chemical analysis here in the article is very intresting

    • Iceland, Hawaii and Galapagos are the most powerful oceanic plumes on the planet .the first two reach 1600 C deeper down in astenosphere under the litosphere.

      But temperature of the magmas
      thats erupted on the surface rarely goes much above 1200 C. I think temperature is a very poor diagnose If a magma is plume based. Still the first two maybe the only places for now ok on land that can erupt at over 1200 C

      Chemistry and Petrology is much better to determine If a magma is plume based or not. Igenous Petrology is also nothing for a beginner in volcanology as I am 😂 its very complicated.

      • I would like to point out that lava sampling underwater at one of the Hawaii seamount volcanos suggested a temperature of 1670 deg C which is really hot. I have seen quotes of 1550 deg C for magma storage temperatures in the Hawaii plume.

        • The deep stoorage is superhot.. hotter than liquid iron! and looking like liquid sunlight

          And its almost the same for the very deep roots of Vatnajökull

          But these plume magmas always cools on the way up.. and erupts at around 1180 C to 1230 C

        • There were crystals in 2018 that came from magma at nearly 1400 C, but the lava wasnt erupting at that temperature. These extreme temperatures probably reflect deep storage temperatures, which would presumably be hotter at a bigger volcano due to greater insulation. Mauna Loa has a similar record of 1650 C but Kilauea consistently erupts hotter lava, and its not a small difference either at least 5 eruptions at Kilauea have exceeded 1200 C and it was at that temperature for years in the overlook crater.

      • Jesper, I found my reference, it is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X20302399 where they mention that the 1976 dredging of lava samples yields a temperature of 1703 ± 56 °C for that magma. I am sure that it did not cool too much when it was erupting. The Puhahonu Volcano is the largest shield volcano on earth and its large size was due to the very high magma temperature.

        Tortuga Island in the Galapogos Island complex does exhibit komatite lava very hot when erupted, but it is my opinion that perhaps the Puhahonu lava is the hottest lava we’ve seen the past 20 million years.

    • Most other places and volcanic Islands erupt basalt at only little over 1100 C .. these days suggesting that the uppermost mantle have cooled quite alot since Earth formed.

      Only Iceland and Hawaii seems to be able to do anything much over 1200 C as eruption temperatures these days ( and they rarely do that ) .. magmas stoored in massive stoorage areras.

      Two above 1500 C plumes suggest that the Deep Mantle is not cooled significantly since formation .. even If most of the direct hadean accration impact energy have long been lost.
      Radioactive decay as well as primodial is a significant heat source today. After all Punahonu had 1700 C deep melting region under litosphere

    • Still the deep mantle is still really really hot .. retains alot of heat since Earth formed. Iceland seems to tap into the lower mantle. I seen many seismic tomographs under Iceland .. and suggest a pillar of low density mantle rock that extends down to 3000 km below the seafloor..

      Iceland is a core boundary plume!
      Its nothing shallow here

  16. I think you are mistaken about one thing in the addendum. The TiO2 is not increasing. The RATIO of K2O to TiO2 is increasing. This most likely means that total titanium content is decreasing. This is to be expected if the magma is of deep origin. While it was in the crust or even at the crust/mantle boundary, it would pick up titanium from the surface rock. After it has erupted for a while, cleared out the magma that had been sitting in the dike, and after drawing up new fresh material from deeper down that has been in contact with the crust for a shorter period of time, the ratio of potassium to titanium increases (titanium declines).

    Also, a post doc researcher at Uni Iceland, Walter Marshall has a piece of lava that is now suspected of containing an inclusion from dike wall erosion/ablation. In other words, possible evidence that this flow of magma is causing some ablation of the dike walls and possibly enlarging the plumbing a bit.

    The important point is that the graph is not a graph of TiO2, it is a graph of the ratio of potassium to titanium and so a rising graph means that the amount of titanium relative to the amount of potassium is declining suggesting less contact with crust rock.

    • Appreciate your comment about TiO2 decreasing. I also find fascinating that this magma has not been seen before, apparently ever, on the Iceland surface and seems to be a unique one from the upper mantle.

    • This was one of the things I was musing when I first reacted to Carl’s great article. I remember seeing that inclusion and wondering if it was country rock being eroded by the lava.

      There are obvious large forces acting on the ingredients of the landscape. I’m constantly amazed at the barrage that the spatter cones suffer from the constant fountaining. Percussive hydraulic action like the sea and pebbles against a cliff, with compressed superheated air getting trapped and releasing pressure with every wave.
      Also, seeing how the levees deflate when the channels empty quickly, causing them to rise and fall with the changing levels, and sometimes causing collapses of the channel banks before the lava returns to the channel. The N Langihryggur camera is great for this action. I just zip my mouse up and down the photo links and make the lava field yoyo up and down.

  17. Thanks Carl! Very nice! Open Science workshop at its best!
    The changing petrology profile indicating increasingly deeper and deeper origin over time… Could it be a sign of ongoing decompression melt like in CHADs hell maschine. Or is it just a result of how the melted magamas are lined up in the conduits?

  19. One of the two remaining Apollo-11 astronauts has died. Most of the people alive at the moment have not seen anyone walking on the moon in their life time. Our progress has gone backward. We should have been on Mars by now

    • Only Buzz is left of that crew. He’s promoting the Mars project with all the vim and vigor that he can muster.

      I remember having to break the news of Neil’s death to our cruise buddy, who was great friends with all three. He works within the satellite industry, and is a member of the Astronaut Scuba Diving Club. We met on our 30th anniversary cruise to Iceland and Norway.

    • Not just Mars … by now we should have been solidly established at Callisto and Europa, well on the way to Titan, and seriously planning the moons of Uranus and Neptune. Not to mention all that tasty sunlight a Mercury colony could harvest and use to launch solar sail craft toward far Centauri. Infinity beckons, if we are able to rise above our petty differences and dare claim it.

      • At least we are making up lost ground now, Starship isnt just a concept anymore even if it has a lot of proving to do yet.

      • Money. I consider further research on Venus important as well. Also Io maybe.

        • Space shuttle, I think. That was a dead end, not really suitable for anything. Each launch cost more than a rocket launch, it could not reach higher orbits, and it turned out to have some design issues with finally killed it. The money that should have gone into space exploration went into the shuttle instead.

          • The original shuttle was actually going to be very similar to Starship, basically a suborbital part that launches a reusable second stage. In the original shuttle the booster was also a space plane though, so would land on a runway too, as opposed to vertically like SpaceX launches do now. It all got changed though mostly for military purposes and then nearly none of the intended uses were ever used at all after Challenger. Really should have been retired right there and then, but looking at how the US government is handling the SLS its not surprising they dragged it out a few decades…

            Some sceptics say Starship will go this way too but they are forgetting SpaceX is a private company, and Elon Musk is very much about getting the job done, not getting political clout.

          • Orbit is the key. Once we have cost effective access low Earth orbit we are on our way to being a Solar System wide civilisation. We are not there yet.

  20. Has anyone seen any recent data on lava temperatures? The Keilir IR camera is showing much more the last couple of days. The question is, is it due to the higher fountains, now there is only one vent or increased temperature of the gases?

  21. Carl, or one of the dragons, can you fix the first two links under the article.
    Intriguing. Thanks a lot!

  22. How does the lava composition now compare to previous eruptions at Fagradalsfjall?

  23. Geldingadalir Channel on Volcano TV is pretty spectacular tonight ..

  24. 02:39 UTC. Just took a stroll through the dungeon and saw no comments pending review.

  25. The small swarm north of Hengill looking interesting this morning:

  27. It looks like ruv.is camera went to a light blue screen and did someone point the mbl.is camera to look at the ground and a metal plate? It would be nice to see the active cone again @ 5:29 am

  28. Some asshole kicked over the mbl cam. It’s on its side staring at a bunch of gravel now.

    I reiterate my call for more robust security barriers around the damn cams.

    • Some people just like to be evil, just go ask the virgin sacrifices in my basement.

    • Why are you always so passiv-aggressive about the camera stuff? You always asume someone destroyed the cam or did damage to it when in 9/10 cases technical difficulties were the cause for the problems. Even this time no one kicked the cam. The operator just turned it around and it got fixed after a few minutes.

      I’m very grateful for the amazing coverage of this eruption. Just look at the current Kilauea eruption. You get one image every 10 minutes. That’s it.

      • There has to my knowledge not been a single report of vandalism from either RÚV or Mbl regarding their cameras. They have however on a few occasions mentioned technical issues, they do however tend to get turned around during servicing, which while annoying is nothing to complain about.

        And as MaxJ mentiones, I think we are extremely privileged to have so many cameras pointed at the eruption site despite the few tecnhical issues from time to time. Four live, two RÚV and two MBL, and two and ½ from Almannavarnir that update with a few minutes interval.

        • I agree. It is brilliant. The only real problem are a few non-virtual tourists! Technical issues are to be expected. Lava overrunning a camera was perhaps foreseeable, at least in hindsight

  29. What’s happend with the mbl-cam which is zoomed in on the cone?
    Doesn’t exist anymore

      • I also enjoy the new view. Gives a better perspective of the wider picture. The access path to the previous spot was being cut off by lava, so it’s understandable that they moved it.

      • At 08:04:20 onward huge fountains, even from this Distance…..
        There is some nicht pressure in the Hole… !!!!

      • I like it as well. Gives a better perspective as to how huge that crater actually is as well as the lava fountain compared to the old ones, especially the original twins.

  30. This post is a perfect example of why I return to this site frequently. Pure brain food, and respectful to the scientific method. Thank you Carl.

  31. If indeed very hot plume origin magma is involved in this atypical opening of the Reykjanes cycle then interesting times await the residents of the peninsula. Grindavik in particular would appear to be in a risky location.

    • Not my face .. its yet another avatar that should not exist ..
      Why does this happen? not my avatar!

    • Aaaaaaaaa now VC shows the correct ugly avatar … : )

  34. https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/18/eldgosid-i-geldingadolum-i-beinni-utsendingu?utm_source=forsida_ruv&utm_medium=eld
    Posted 9.43 this morning

    Try this link. A Tornado at the eruption sight. I hope the link works this time

    Your comments are still being queued for approval by the system. It does not tell us why. Our IT magicians may have to look into this one. Please be patient and your comments will be released to the world as soon when we check the queue – minor admin

    • Whoa! That’s the coolest video of a lava tornado I’ve ever seen. There are other lavanadoes that have been caught on camera before, but usually the videos are very brief, and none have a dazzling fire fountain playing in the background.

    • Lava tornadoes are kind of a hazard too. A very very rare occurrence, but imagine one shows up suddenly nearby and throws a chunk of lava towards you…

    • The folk sitting around seem very relaxed about the bits of incandescent rock flying beyond the lava field!

  35. Personally I am not so keen on the MBL wide field view. If they retreat any further, I’ll get a better view of the volcano from my bedroom window in Surrey, UK.
    And this reminds me, I need to visit my optician:
    “So what can we do for you?”
    “I can’t see the volcano in Iceland.”
    “Hmmm, your long sight is much worse….”
    I do hope they re-establish a closer webcam.

    • Opticians… “Is THIS better or … THIS?”. At that point I know he didn’t change the lens in his weired apparatus. It’s a test whether he can trust me.

      Regarding the cam: Maybe a cam on the spectators hill east of the late twins would be a good place? Or is it already surrounded by lava?

      And another thing: When logging in wird WordPress it still asks me to confirm that I’m human. Once in a while one should indeed confirm that. And then I check “Remember me”. Right, who doesn’t want to be remembered?

      • Whenever I am asked if I am human, I have to ask myself: “Have I had my morning cups of coffee, yet?”.
        If the answer to the latter is no, I’m afraid the answer to the former is likely to be no, as well.

      • Your optician is testing for astigmatism angle or cyl axis. It’s done by small changes in degree. So if you don’t see any actual difference, you should say that, not just guess. Look at your prescription, it will go something like this:

        R(Sphere:) -8.00 (Cyl:) 0.00 (Axis:) 000 L(Sphere:) -6.75(Cyl:) 1.25 (Axis:) 035

        This was my Rx before my lasik treatment.

        Every question is asked for a reason 🙂

        • Strange. My prescription look like

          R(Sphere:) -7.00 (Cyl:) 0.00 (Axis:) 000 L(Sphere:) -6.25(Cyl:) 0.95 (Axis:) 035 F(ool): +98

          Also I believe that the current prescription value of the optician himdelf should be given!

    • There are now two MBL cameras. The new wideangle one appears to be on the slopes of Stori Hrutur (although it may also be on Langihryggur) and the other one is still on the slopes of the hill between the eruption site and Stori Hrutur, east of the original vents. This page is now showing both MBL and both RUV cameras.
      https://maps.acme.to/gos/
      It also has a couple of maps and then the Langihryggur cameras, which are on a very similar alignment, but further away.

    • Apparently it was at Eiturholl, but it seems a bit big and deep for a manmade one at 3.8, 6.4 km.

  38. Hengill damnit 😣

    No way thid one was manmade

    29.04.202111:37:3764,123-21,3606,2 km3,899,02,7 km ASA af Eiturhóli

    • Woops

      29.04.2021 11:37:37 64,123-21,360 6,2 km 3,8 99,0 2,7 km ASA af Eiturhóli

        • A report about quakeswarms that occured in Hengill area in 1996-1997 issued by IMO states Eiturhóll is just north of the northern edges of Brennisteinsfjalla system. I think this indicates this swarm belongs to that system instead of Hengill.

          • That is how I saw it too, but is a bit outside that system as well

          • When we had the swarm there the other day, before I knew for sure about manmade activity in the area, I was trying to work out which system it would have been and concluded it was between the two. That made me suspect manmade, then I think it was you stated they are usually manmade around there. It does raise interesting questions though.

          • I’ve also noticed a few around Hrómundartindi as well, which is right in amongst the Hengill system.

          • Yes Richard it was me who was sure they were man made. They usually are in that area these days. But they are never this big.

            I also read in local news today in an interview with a specialist at IMO that water has not been pumped down around Hengill since last year.

    • that area had an ongoing swarm for many days now. Curious.

        • It’s been confirmed. They haven’t been pumping into the ground for weeks. So not man made.

    • Hurrah!
      I wish they would straighten that cam up. it makes me dizzy watching lava flow uphill. 🙂

      • i think it has more to do with the prespective….and foreshortening

  41. You know, Carl’s article title reminds me of a poem or song. “The Ballad of the Plume” or something….

    The Plume of Ballareldar
    Be no ship nor castle bold
    No story of maid or knightly dare
    Nor penned stories of old

    The Plume of Ballareldar
    Broils under scudding clouds
    People come from wide and far
    Gathered in mighty crowds

    Lava gushed and flowed around
    The deep dales of horse and mare
    Its broiling mass burned the ground
    Darkening land once fair

    OK I think that’s enough. There are way better poets on VC!

    • According to the lovely man reporting for Reykjavik Grapevine, it’s not stallions, but castrated sheep, or wethers, that the Geldingadalir is named after. The Meradalir is named for female horses though.

      Loving the poetry.Is that a paraphrase, or your own composition?

      • Thank you. It is totally my own drivel. I could produce more but the cringe ratio is logarithmic. 🙂
        I kept reading Carl’s title as “The Ballad of Reldar”.

      • The cringe ratio is all in your head. No cringe here. Carry on, it’s great for the soul. Poetry is needed in Interesting Times such as these. I like to work in certain memorable phrases into my posts wherever possible. No-one’s rumbled me yet…

      • Poetry is for the writer and for the reader, not for the critic. I wouldn’t attempt any if I thought it would be judged rather than read! I enjoyed yours and that is more than good enough for me!

        • That’s a nice encouraging answer for Clive. Crust seems to create beautiful poetry. I found some on VC and also in Dorrik Stow’s “Tethys”, a lovable book with much insight, also into the complex story of the process of extinction towards and around the end of the Cretacious. Another scientist who loves his field and a long gone ocean.

  42. have a question…. about 1800 or 6pm on the K100 cam or fountaining cam there seems to be something disentegrating high in the plume… it went to the right; circled around and went thu the plume again and then fell apart and came down in a rain of debis. Anyone, anyone??

    • The K100 cam is no longer tipped, but it is also no longer working. Or it is working, but not for me.

  43. Bjorn Steinbekk ?
    He flew one into the fountain recently. Perhaps others are following suit LOL

    • Love flying around that bad boy. Did you spot the plane in the lava?

    • Thank you Virtual. Agree about the new view.
      Unusually clear photogenic sky yesterday.
      Got a kick out of the flashlights.

    • I’ve had a really good look at this, at 0.25 speed. It’s fantastic to see all the detail of happenings in the upper reaches of the exit channel. On the normal night webcams this is all drowned out by the bright glow.

      So many breaches and overtoppings of the levees, it looks as if a couple of large overflows create an island within two channels. This is maintained for several hours; also I wonder if any overspills headed southwest down the small gap behind Fissure1/Smeagol/Sudri. Difficult to tell from this angle.
      I’m still puzzling where the large lavaberg/raft (the one that blocks the southbound bend in the early afternoon today) originated, possibly it was the island? I can’t see any large collapse that would have made such a huge piece. I’m surprised that, having got wedged, it didn’t collapse like all the ones that have gone before.

    • This drone video is excellent in showing the 2 zones where the ground was steaming, and the video makes one set of streaming fumeroles quite easily visible. The other is towards the east, but both lie along two zones parallel with the traditionally marked out fissure lineament. Clearly the ground was quite hot under these two areas, but I am puzzled that not much comment has been made about this.

  47. Oh Virtual thank you so much for carryiong on with the timelapses after that awful one with the volcano idiots. I was so worried that you had been permanently put off by the crass moronic behaviour.

    This is especially welcome, as there seems to be a lot of shenanigans happening with the flow further up the channel in the dead of night, leading to a large blockage just below the south-bound bend, leading to a very large overflowing to the northern route. It looks very much like this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back to make the flow go north. JanB will be pleased. 🙂

  48. 20.45 breakout on new mbl webcam, going downslope towards Meradalir. Looks like it could be a biggie.

    • The activity looks to be the strongest I’ve seen it in those vents (probably only one now).

      • Quite active this evening. Beautiful fountaining. I think we might be in for a new vent opening – with the ground just melting like chocolate – some time soon.

  49. Though I promised myself to take it easy, another timelapse from this afternoon, from the ‘regular’ mbl webcam.
    From 15h to 18h untill the connection got lost.
    I also took the liberty to level the view (though not entirely).
    This involved some trickery (masking), but none of the relevant part as been masked or manipulated otherwise.
    (I write this because I suspect some of you scrutinize every detail) 😉

    https://youtu.be/LguWG6TB6gI

    Though I resume timelapses I will take my time now and not try to cover everything.
    I have a crow to befriend (but that’s another story)

    • I’m a member of a Corvid appreciation fb group. We have a huge colony that roosts in pine trees within a nature reserve just down the road. I always know when to stop gardening when they gather the troops in for the daily fly-past to roost. It’s quite a sight and sound. I try to feed and communicate, but so far unsuccessfully. Of the corvid family, there are crows, ravens, jays, jackdaws and magpies.

      The timelapse – so many questions! Where did that lava sneak from in the foreground!? Did the camera survive, or has it been gobbled up!? Has the larger vent extinguished it’s smaller companion? We needs to know!

    • The lava slides in from the left like a stealthy black alligator.

    • i see Hobbs frequently but it doesn’t seem to keep me from ‘like’ing or posting but i can’t email You… i’ve kind of crashed my email ability. and i’ve lost all my old emails but i’m feeling lighter(haha) out of sight=out of mind.

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