Land is rising again at Svartsengi
Land seems to be rising again at Svartsengi after the volcanic eruption on Sunday. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
Land appears to be beginning to rise again on the Reykjanes peninsula according to Þorvaldur Þórðarson, professor of volcanology at the University of Iceland.
He thinks it's likely that magma is again beginning to accumulate at a depth of four to five kilometers in the same magma chamber at Svartsengi.
If that is the case, he says that nature is starting to lay the groundwork for the next event.
“If this continues like this, we could be looking at a recurring event,” he tells us.
“We fill it [the magma chamber] and drain it and fill it again and drain it agan,” the professor explains.
From the eruption near Grindavík on Sunday. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon
The meter at Svartsengi didn’t show land subsiding
Shortly before the eruption southeast at Hagafell on Sunday, measurements close to Svartsengi showed land subsiding, for example at Eldvörp and Skipastígur lava fields.
However, a GPS-meter at Svartsengi did not show that, but land still rising. According to Þórðarson, the explanation could be that the meter was close to the edge of the magma dike.
“The edges of the magma dike or the area on either side of the dike, it rises, but the area directly above the hallway, it falls down. It’s like the Svartsengi meter has landed on top of the area that’s rising.”
All measurements in these areas seem to show land rising now. But it should be noted that it was not long before the eruption at the Sundhnúkagígar crater row in December that measurements showed that land had begun to rise again.
The eruption is over
Þórðarson believes the eruption at Hagafell and Grindavík has now been completed. The last sign of activity was seen at about 00.37 am.
When asked if he thinks a volcanic eruption in Grindavík would be a likely scenario, he says that he doesn’t think so, but he thinks it’s more likely that another volcanic eruption will occur north of the fissure.
