Lava still flowing to the north and one crater is still active
Even if the power in the eruption has decreased, it is still steady in one crater. mbl.is/Hörður Kristleifsson
The volcanic activity at Sundhnúkagígar crater row is still stable but there has been no seismic activity in the area last night.
Lava is still flowing slowly towards the north along the Mt Sýlingarfall ridge where it is “piling up”, according to Bjarki Kaldalón Friðriksson, a natural hazard specialist at the Icelandic Met Office.
A north and northwesterly wind is forecast today, and gas pollution will therefore spread to the south and southeast. It could be felt in Grindavík.
According to Benedikt Gunnar Ófeigsson, director of deformation measurements at the Icelandic Met Office, the current volcanic eruption is starting to look like the last eruption.
In the next week or two, it will be clear whether this trend will continue or develop further.
“It is slowing down and, only one crater is active now,” replies Benedikt Gunnard when asked about the situation of the volcanic eruption. But he says that precise figures on lava flow cannot be published just yet because of the weather.
Could continue for a long time
“We don’t have a good estimate of the flow exactly as it is, and we don’t have a good chance of getting it until after the weather goes down,” Ófeigsson says, explaining that to estimate the flow of lava, it is necessary to fly over the area so that the volume changes of the lava can be estimated.
“It doesn’t necessarily seem like the eruption is coming to an end,” he says, “but until yesterday, there were clear signs of deformation in Svartsengi.” He says the deformation is slowing down now, but at the same time, it’s too early to determine whether inflation has begun again.
“There are some changes, but it will be revealed in the next few days how it develops. It is most likely that it we will see inflation again or that it will be stable, but we’ll have to wait and see,” he says.
“Even though inflation starts again then the eruption could be prolonged for a longer time like it did the last time. It’s really hard to say what that means, but at least we see signs that the magma flow below is still very similar. That is to say, it is feeding the Svartsengi system, as it was during the last eruption.”
