We dont know whether you are aware but a new volcano - Fagradalsfjall - broke out in the South western peninsula of Iceland in March this year. Some of the photos on the web have been pretty spectacular, with tourists standing within just a few feet of slowly spreading lava, and not surprisingly it has quite a tourist draw.
We were aware of the volcano when we booked and were hopeful that there would still be some spectacle when we went on whatever day we booked for.
In the recent 2 to 3 months research on the web regularly showed us that the best of the eruption had now passed. Anything that was happening now was very intermittent and unpredictable, so booking a trip is a bit of a leap of faith.
We left booking as late as we with, which effectively meant after we had had our negative test results at the weekend just passed. Arriving in Iceland on Monday and picking up the hire car on Thursday gave few options and so a booking was made for Wednesday morning,
Most recent Twitter entries - search on Iceland Lava - was not looking over promising for much glowing activity.
Once we had all been picked up from around Reykjavk, a dozen of us in all, the guide introduced himself. Turned out he was a Brit, from Sheffield, here for 20 years. Previous experience was on snow mobile guiding tours.
He gave a reasonably untechnical intro to what had been happening since March. The initial eruption was, long term wise, unexpected as there has been no volcanic activity on this peninsula for over 6000 years, but it is a seismic The Blue Lagoon is visible only a few miles away, and we stopped by some thermal hot pools on the way to the volcano. But no lava activity.
Short term, however, it was predicted as local seismic activity had been very hectic eg 40000 seismic events in the 3 weeks before she blew.
Since she blew in March she has been through around 5 different phases of activity. Too much detail for a blog, but available here if you are interested -
this volcano is not being serviced by a magma chamber which has a finite amount of lava and will only last for a running out period of time. This volcano is directly plumbed through the earths crust into the molten mantle around 17km below.
The vulcanology on site here is perplexing scientists as it is demonstrating effects never observed before.
The climb up had been graded/surfaced as a tourist trail but was still reasonably arduous. We tracked it in three chunks with a group rest after each. At the top we still expected a mile or more walk across rough ground, above the already valley, to reach what the guide expected to be the best viewing spot. As we crested the brow of a hill however plans were out of the window and all bets were off.
Barely a matter of a minute or two before we had crested, a brand new fissure had opened at the base of the main eruption cone.... and fresh lava was cascading from this
The guide himself could barely contain himself at what we were watching. His actual words were Thats insane!!
The valley already had a layer, around 100 metres or so deep according to the guide, of solidified lava. But the new stuff was advancing across the top of this at a rate of knots. No direct danger to ourselves as we were well elevated above it, but really spectacular to watch as the lava spread. It reminded us of watching the advancing Severn Bore one time.
Closer and closer it came and the heat, even at a distance of a few hundred metres, became ever more unbearable. We all gradually moved further back, still transfixed by what we were watching.
After 20 minutes or so it became apparent, confirmed by the guide, that the noxious gases were a very serious health hazard. The lava had flowed far enough along the valley below us that we were now downwind.
