8 ms·

Volcanic eruption starts in Iceland (Live webcam)

135 points by MrDresden 4y ago

eurasiantiger 4y ago
Where is the materials science for extruding bricks out of lava flows?
MrDresden 4y ago
There is also a live video feed[0] available from the coast guard helicopter as it flew a reconnaissance flight over the eruption with scientists today edit: sadly the stream has been cut down to minutes from its original hour+ length. [0] https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/08/03/beint-streymi-ur-thyrlu-landhelgisgaeslunnar https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/08/03/beint-streymi-ur-thyrlu-...
- gerdesj 4y ago
  That looks a bit close. When rock is bubbling, I think I'd rather many miles away from it.
  - borski 4y ago
    This is the same volcano that erupted last summer and moved slowly enough that you could actually hike it. It was stunning.
    - MrDresden 4y ago
      As a short and concise report on last year's eruption I would recommend this 60 minutes[0] piece [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LI8Gcpawvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LI8Gcpawvo
      - dylan604 4y ago
        When 60 minutes is the short and concise version, I'm wondering if Peter Jackson has the full extended version available
        lostlogin 4y ago
        If anyone would like to import him, New Zealand would appreciate it.
        dylan604 4y ago
        No no, he's perfectly fine right where he is. In fact, if you chaps could do a better job of keeping him away from the Tolkein estate, that would be lovely.
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    There are several different kinds of eruptions, some of them you want to be many miles away from, others just far enough not to be too hot. It depends on the kinds of materials in the volcano, the Iceland volcanoes aren't the ones that do the exploding and pyroclastic flows, IIRC.
    - meheleventyone 4y ago
      In Iceland it really depends on whether the eruption is under ice or not. Eyjafjallajökull's last eruption was infamously explosive for example.
  - Kye 4y ago
    Perspective can be weird. They're probably a good distance away.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > edit: sadly the stream has been cut down to minutes from its original hour+ length. Damn, I opened this when you posted it and wanted to come back to it when I had some down time later in the day and saw it's been clipped; it was interesting to see how close all those camera men got to the active site. I was on Maui in 2014 when Kilauea happened on the Big Island and brought back to those days. It was pretty crazy because I was waiting on tons of equipment coming in from the mainland which got delayed because of this, even though the route was coming in from Oahu before departing to Maui. Luckily this eruption doesn't seem like the one in 2010 which would compound and already horrible flying experience this summer. I found a link on youtube with an alt live stream, its not as lose but still shows a pretty good vantage point [1]. 0: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/hawaii-volcano/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/hawaii-volcano/index.h... 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2-ecAINWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2-ecAINWg
bell-cot 4y ago
GeologyHub ( https://www.youtube.com/c/GeologyHub/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/GeologyHub/videos ) does very short (~4 minute) daily videos on volcanic activity, and has covered Iceland several of times recently.
- devoutsalsa 4y ago
  Great channel.
itcrowd 4y ago
The perfect time to recommend Fire of Love (2022): https://imdb.com/title/tt16227014/ https://imdb.com/title/tt16227014/ It a beautiful documentary with footage from the 60s-90s about a volcanist couple who embarked on a mission to understand volcanoes scientifically and (later) educate the public about their dangers. Terrific cinematography! Edit: I now see it has 99% critics review on rotten tomatoes (88% from the audience) https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fire_of_love https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fire_of_love
- nebula8804 4y ago
  This was literally promoted last night by one of my favorite movie writers yesterday. Upon looking at listings all I see were showtimes in major cities like NYC. New Jersey just has mass market junk :/
bilsbie 4y ago
How much co2 will this release and can we afford it?
- Kutta 4y ago
  It will release approximately no CO2.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Iceland is a pioneer in clean vulcanism.
- rogo007 4y ago
  “There is no question that very large volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens vented approximately 10 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in only 9 hours”
- runarberg 4y ago
  There was a famous case of one volcano in Iceland that stranded a bunch of airplanes resulting in net greenhouse savings. That is the amount of greenhouse gas that the volcano emitted was less then what the airplanes would have otherwise emitted if the volcano wouldn’t have stranded them. That was a fairly small eruption though and didn’t emit a lot of greenhouse gas. There was another eruption last year in the same place as this one, and it was even smaller. This one seems to be larger then last years eruption, but I would be surprised if this one actually emitted more greenhouse gas over the next year then e.g. Iceland’s aluminum industry. So to answer your question if we can afford it. The answer is yes. We are experiencing about average number of volcanoes globally, and the greenhouse gas emissions of volcanoes has remained steady for the last few millions years, and we are not seeing any increase. In comparison human greenhouse gas emissions are rising dramatically, we should probably focus our efforts there. EDIT: Here is a short article (in Icelandic) about the greenhouse gas emissions of last year’s eruption: https://kjarninn.is/skodun/eldgos-og-co2/ https://kjarninn.is/skodun/eldgos-og-co2/
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
gojomo 4y ago
As soon as my 2nd vax dose was 14d behind-me in May 2021, I went to Iceland – which had just recently reopened to vaxed travelers – to see the Fagradalsfjall eruption. It was just a ~50m drive from Reykjavik, plus a ~1h20m hike. It was spectacular - launching large lava plumes on a roughly 8-minute, reliable cycle, and feeding ever-growing lava fields out around both sides of one hilltop that was ideal for watching the volcano. (The rising lava fields made that perch unreachable just a few weeks later.) If you've ever wanted to see an eruption up-close, with actual hot flowing lava, get there while it's going/growing. (Of course, this could stop tomorrow or continue for months.) A good writeup about that time of volcano-tourism: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/chasing-the-lava-flow-in-iceland https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/chasing-the-la...
- devoutsalsa 4y ago
  I did the same on. I got a chance to get reasonably close on May 29, 2021. Here's the coolest selfie I'll ever take. https://i.imgur.com/pCA1gSr.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pCA1gSr.jpg Two days later the hill on which I took that selfie was cut off from a new lava flow.
  - gojomo 4y ago
    That hill was amazing! Almost like box seats over the show, close in, but high above places where dangerous gasses most likely to collect, and offering 360° views of surrounding valleys slowly filling with lava.
  - grecy 4y ago
    I did the same in Guatemala - poked the lave a with a stick, threw rocks in and even roasted marshmallows on it. Somehow regular fire roasted ones have never tasted the same since :) http://theroadchoseme.com/volca%CC%81n-pacaya http://theroadchoseme.com/volca%CC%81n-pacaya
- sosborn 4y ago
  I'm biased, but Kilauea volcano is incredible if you want to see an safe but active eruption: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/summit-webcams https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/summit-webcams
thom 4y ago
Twitter running Chirp and Icelandic volcanoes erupting, all is right in the world, here in 2010.
marcodiego 4y ago
I can't be the only one to think volcanic eruptions are good settings to test Venus rovers. Composition and pressure are still different sure, but you gotta test these vehicles on Earth before sending them.
mr_woozy 4y ago
IYasha 4y ago
Hot. And I wanted to move to Iceland not long ago...
julienchastang 4y ago
Dammit! I was just there at the end of June.
kvetching 4y ago
It's amazing that Energy is such a major issue for our civilization, yet we ignore that we are sitting on top of many millions of gallons of lava
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kvetching 4y ago
  We just need a machine that will drill down to the magma, simply install heat transfer rods, and we install a steam turbine above it. Do this everywhere we have a coal / gas power plant
  - lisper 4y ago
    What could possibly go wrong?
    - kvetching 4y ago
      Actually this is already being done in Iceland. "Geothermal energy is a major source of energy in Iceland, with about 25 percent of the country's electricity generated from tapping the Earth's heat, according to the National Energy Authority of Iceland. About 90 percent of Icelandic households are heated with geothermal energy." Source: https://www.livescience.com/57833-scientists-drill-volcano-core-geothermal-energy.html#:~:text=Geothermal%20energy%20uses%20the%20heat,used%20to%20drive%20electric%20turbines https://www.livescience.com/57833-scientists-drill-volcano-c....
      - MrDresden 4y ago
        Iceland also had the first magma powered electric generator back in 2009. Was an accidental result of a research drilling project though. Scishow made a video about it back in 2014 [0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jARDdWuFpK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jARDdWuFpK8
      - lisper 4y ago
ChrisArchitect 4y ago
Iceland continuing to thank its lucky stars (or elves or whatever they believe in) for these absolutely perfect tourist attractions. I mean, a crazy but not too crazy eruption, continuous flow of lava just a stones throw from Reykjavik? And now it's happening again? The Earth's gift that keeps on giving. Makes me wonder, what if the mayor or head of tourism or something found a way to 'poke' the mantle and make the lava start flowing again after the last one dried up earlier. haha
- gojomo 4y ago
  I whimsically considered the same! Iceland, using its secret volcano-control technology, creating easy-to-reach new post-pandemic tourist attractions. But I don't think the government has that capability. The Huldufólk, on the other hand, might: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk

135 points by MrDresden 4y ago

Where is the materials science for extruding bricks out of lava flows?

There is also a live video feed[0] available from the coast guard helicopter as it flew a reconnaissance flight over the eruption with scientists today edit: sadly the stream has been cut down to minutes from its original hour+ length. [0] https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/08/03/beint-streymi-ur-thyrlu-landhelgisgaeslunnar https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/08/03/beint-streymi-ur-thyrlu-...

gerdesj 4y ago
That looks a bit close. When rock is bubbling, I think I'd rather many miles away from it.
- borski 4y ago
  This is the same volcano that erupted last summer and moved slowly enough that you could actually hike it. It was stunning.
  - MrDresden 4y ago
    As a short and concise report on last year's eruption I would recommend this 60 minutes[0] piece [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LI8Gcpawvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LI8Gcpawvo
    - dylan604 4y ago
      When 60 minutes is the short and concise version, I'm wondering if Peter Jackson has the full extended version available
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        If anyone would like to import him, New Zealand would appreciate it.
        dylan604 4y ago
        No no, he's perfectly fine right where he is. In fact, if you chaps could do a better job of keeping him away from the Tolkein estate, that would be lovely.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  There are several different kinds of eruptions, some of them you want to be many miles away from, others just far enough not to be too hot. It depends on the kinds of materials in the volcano, the Iceland volcanoes aren't the ones that do the exploding and pyroclastic flows, IIRC.
  - meheleventyone 4y ago
    In Iceland it really depends on whether the eruption is under ice or not. Eyjafjallajökull's last eruption was infamously explosive for example.
- Kye 4y ago
  Perspective can be weird. They're probably a good distance away.
Melting_Harps 4y ago
> edit: sadly the stream has been cut down to minutes from its original hour+ length. Damn, I opened this when you posted it and wanted to come back to it when I had some down time later in the day and saw it's been clipped; it was interesting to see how close all those camera men got to the active site. I was on Maui in 2014 when Kilauea happened on the Big Island and brought back to those days. It was pretty crazy because I was waiting on tons of equipment coming in from the mainland which got delayed because of this, even though the route was coming in from Oahu before departing to Maui. Luckily this eruption doesn't seem like the one in 2010 which would compound and already horrible flying experience this summer. I found a link on youtube with an alt live stream, its not as lose but still shows a pretty good vantage point [1]. 0: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/hawaii-volcano/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/hawaii-volcano/index.h... 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2-ecAINWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2-ecAINWg

bell-cot 4y ago

GeologyHub ( https://www.youtube.com/c/GeologyHub/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/GeologyHub/videos ) does very short (~4 minute) daily videos on volcanic activity, and has covered Iceland several of times recently.

devoutsalsa 4y ago
Great channel.

itcrowd 4y ago

The perfect time to recommend Fire of Love (2022): https://imdb.com/title/tt16227014/ https://imdb.com/title/tt16227014/ It a beautiful documentary with footage from the 60s-90s about a volcanist couple who embarked on a mission to understand volcanoes scientifically and (later) educate the public about their dangers. Terrific cinematography! Edit: I now see it has 99% critics review on rotten tomatoes (88% from the audience) https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fire_of_love https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fire_of_love

nebula8804 4y ago
This was literally promoted last night by one of my favorite movie writers yesterday. Upon looking at listings all I see were showtimes in major cities like NYC. New Jersey just has mass market junk :/

bilsbie 4y ago

How much co2 will this release and can we afford it?

Kutta 4y ago
It will release approximately no CO2.
- Maursault 4y ago
  Iceland is a pioneer in clean vulcanism.
rogo007 4y ago
“There is no question that very large volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens vented approximately 10 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in only 9 hours”
runarberg 4y ago
There was a famous case of one volcano in Iceland that stranded a bunch of airplanes resulting in net greenhouse savings. That is the amount of greenhouse gas that the volcano emitted was less then what the airplanes would have otherwise emitted if the volcano wouldn’t have stranded them. That was a fairly small eruption though and didn’t emit a lot of greenhouse gas. There was another eruption last year in the same place as this one, and it was even smaller. This one seems to be larger then last years eruption, but I would be surprised if this one actually emitted more greenhouse gas over the next year then e.g. Iceland’s aluminum industry. So to answer your question if we can afford it. The answer is yes. We are experiencing about average number of volcanoes globally, and the greenhouse gas emissions of volcanoes has remained steady for the last few millions years, and we are not seeing any increase. In comparison human greenhouse gas emissions are rising dramatically, we should probably focus our efforts there. EDIT: Here is a short article (in Icelandic) about the greenhouse gas emissions of last year’s eruption: https://kjarninn.is/skodun/eldgos-og-co2/ https://kjarninn.is/skodun/eldgos-og-co2/
aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago

gojomo 4y ago

As soon as my 2nd vax dose was 14d behind-me in May 2021, I went to Iceland – which had just recently reopened to vaxed travelers – to see the Fagradalsfjall eruption. It was just a ~50m drive from Reykjavik, plus a ~1h20m hike. It was spectacular - launching large lava plumes on a roughly 8-minute, reliable cycle, and feeding ever-growing lava fields out around both sides of one hilltop that was ideal for watching the volcano. (The rising lava fields made that perch unreachable just a few weeks later.) If you've ever wanted to see an eruption up-close, with actual hot flowing lava, get there while it's going/growing. (Of course, this could stop tomorrow or continue for months.) A good writeup about that time of volcano-tourism: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/chasing-the-lava-flow-in-iceland https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/chasing-the-la...

devoutsalsa 4y ago
I did the same on. I got a chance to get reasonably close on May 29, 2021. Here's the coolest selfie I'll ever take. https://i.imgur.com/pCA1gSr.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pCA1gSr.jpg Two days later the hill on which I took that selfie was cut off from a new lava flow.
- gojomo 4y ago
  That hill was amazing! Almost like box seats over the show, close in, but high above places where dangerous gasses most likely to collect, and offering 360° views of surrounding valleys slowly filling with lava.
- grecy 4y ago
  I did the same in Guatemala - poked the lave a with a stick, threw rocks in and even roasted marshmallows on it. Somehow regular fire roasted ones have never tasted the same since :) http://theroadchoseme.com/volca%CC%81n-pacaya http://theroadchoseme.com/volca%CC%81n-pacaya
sosborn 4y ago
I'm biased, but Kilauea volcano is incredible if you want to see an safe but active eruption: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/summit-webcams https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/summit-webcams

thom 4y ago

Twitter running Chirp and Icelandic volcanoes erupting, all is right in the world, here in 2010.

marcodiego 4y ago

I can't be the only one to think volcanic eruptions are good settings to test Venus rovers. Composition and pressure are still different sure, but you gotta test these vehicles on Earth before sending them.

mr_woozy 4y ago

IYasha 4y ago

Hot. And I wanted to move to Iceland not long ago...

julienchastang 4y ago

Dammit! I was just there at the end of June.

kvetching 4y ago

It's amazing that Energy is such a major issue for our civilization, yet we ignore that we are sitting on top of many millions of gallons of lava

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kvetching 4y ago
We just need a machine that will drill down to the magma, simply install heat transfer rods, and we install a steam turbine above it. Do this everywhere we have a coal / gas power plant
- lisper 4y ago
  What could possibly go wrong?
  - kvetching 4y ago
    Actually this is already being done in Iceland. "Geothermal energy is a major source of energy in Iceland, with about 25 percent of the country's electricity generated from tapping the Earth's heat, according to the National Energy Authority of Iceland. About 90 percent of Icelandic households are heated with geothermal energy." Source: https://www.livescience.com/57833-scientists-drill-volcano-core-geothermal-energy.html#:~:text=Geothermal%20energy%20uses%20the%20heat,used%20to%20drive%20electric%20turbines https://www.livescience.com/57833-scientists-drill-volcano-c....
    - MrDresden 4y ago
      Iceland also had the first magma powered electric generator back in 2009. Was an accidental result of a research drilling project though. Scishow made a video about it back in 2014 [0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jARDdWuFpK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jARDdWuFpK8
    - lisper 4y ago

ChrisArchitect 4y ago

Iceland continuing to thank its lucky stars (or elves or whatever they believe in) for these absolutely perfect tourist attractions. I mean, a crazy but not too crazy eruption, continuous flow of lava just a stones throw from Reykjavik? And now it's happening again? The Earth's gift that keeps on giving. Makes me wonder, what if the mayor or head of tourism or something found a way to 'poke' the mantle and make the lava start flowing again after the last one dried up earlier. haha

gojomo 4y ago
I whimsically considered the same! Iceland, using its secret volcano-control technology, creating easy-to-reach new post-pandemic tourist attractions. But I don't think the government has that capability. The Huldufólk, on the other hand, might: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk