The flow of magma into a 15-kilometre-long crack ahead of the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland occurred at the highest rate observed anywhere in the world for this kind of event.
“We can have higher rates in very large eruptions,” says Freysteinn Sigmundsson at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. “But I am not aware of higher estimates of magma flowing into a crack in the surface.”
Sigmundsson is part of a team that has been using ground-based sensors and satellites to monitor recent volcanic activity under the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. This began with magma accumulating several kilometres beneath the Svartsengi region, the site of a geothermal power plant that supplies warm water to the Blue Lagoon spa, a tourist attraction. READ MORE...
