Large lava flows are escaping from nearly a kilometer long faults: Despite authorities’ urges to avoid traveling to the site of the new eruption in Iceland southwest of Reykjavik, the first intrepid could not resist the magma’s call of “pure orange like the sun”.
While the eruption still remains of “low intensity,” according to volcanologists, initial estimates suggest its flow is significantly stronger than the previous two eruptions in 2021 and 2022 in the Reykjanes Peninsula, an area that has been hit for two years Years after eight centuries lava has returned to dormancy.
“It’s not that hot on this side as the wind blows in the opposite direction. It’s okay, it’s like a campfire. But when you get to the other side, with the gases, the heat is unbearable. Way too hot to stay there even a second too long. It looks like 1000 degrees,” says Niall Lynch, a 23-year-old Irish guide whom AFP met in front of the new fresh lava flows near small Mount Litli Hrutur.
The new eruptive faults, located 30 kilometers as the crow flies from Reykjavik, reached a total size of about 900 meters overnight, up from 200 to 300 meters initially, according to the latest data from the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO) around 3 a.m. GMT on Tuesday.
“If you look at the core of the lava flow, it’s much brighter than I expected. I thought I would see darker colors, black and brown, like the rock solidifying. But in the center it’s a pure orange like the sun. It’s incredible,” says Niall.
Gas pollution, particularly sulfur dioxide, is “high and dangerous” at the site, warned the IMO, which is discouraging tourists from going there before more accurate estimates and is closing access to the site around 9pm GMT Monday night.
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During the six months of the March 2021 eruption and then the three weeks of the August 2022 eruption, hundreds of thousands of visitors came to admire the hypnotic spectacle of the lava, relatively easy to access from Reykjavik along the rim of Mount Fagradallsfjall and the valleys from Meradalir and Wallingadalir.
In contrast to explosive eruptions spewing thousands of tons of dust, such as the still famous Eyjafjallajökull eruption that paralyzed air traffic in Europe in 2010, so-called “effusive” eruptions have little effect, apart from lava flows and local spikes of toxic gases.
Smell of “big cricket”
The few visitors who managed to reach the site before it closed describe the experience of a lifetime.
From the nearest road you have to take an arduous path, the last three kilometers of which meander through moss and stones embedded in the ground.
When the lava finally comes into view, with the small mountain Litli Hrutur (‘little ram’) on the left, the feeling is “indescribable,” admits Jessica Poteet, a 41-year-old American living in Iceland.
“When you first go up the hill, especially since it’s the first day, you see the lava fountains and hear the creaking of the solidified rock. It’s just incredible,” she says.
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“It’s really great to break out of everyday life, to connect with the earth and nature in this way,” enthuses Gudmundur Hauksson, a 26-year-old Icelander who was also among the first.
When the wind doesn’t blow it away, some visitors say the strong smell is reminiscent of “a big barbecue.”
Down near the lava we are also engulfed by dense smoke related not to the gases but to the foam around the spot that ignites and burns under the 1200°C molten liquid.
How long will this natural spectacle last, which will attract hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting Iceland this season?
“We have no idea,” says volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson of the University of Iceland. “It might as well be a few days, a month, six months like in 2021, or even longer.”