Working on cooling the lava around the clock
Work is underway to expand and widen the defense walls at Svartsengi. mbl.is/Hákon Pálsson
Work was done all night on cooling the lava at the eruption sites at Sundhnúkagígar crater row as well as on expanding and widening the defense walls, so that red-hot lava does not get over them.
Helgi Hjörleifsson, lava cooling manager at the Civil Protection Agency, says that four people worked on the lava cooling all night and today six people will be working.
"The work has gone incredibly well and we were starting a second pump at the L4 defense wall," Hjörleifsson says in an interview with mbl.is.
See visible results
Do you see any visible results from this work of yours?
"Yes, indeed, and based on how it looked last night, the lava edge that we have been cooling has turned pitch black," he says.
At the same time as work is being done on cooling the lava, Efla employees are expanding and strengthening the defense walls.
"We are currently running these two pumps for some time but will soon stop at the L3 defense wall as the contractor approaches us. Then we will have prepared the lava edge and cooled it down. When the contractor has finished raising the defense wall, we will come back if necessary," Hjörleifsson says.
