So, seismologist Kristin Jonsdottir, and her European partners, tried something new – burying a coil of fiber optic cables in the ice cap. Overdue for an eruption, Grimsvotn is hidden beneath a glacier making it almost impossible to monitor. Take Grimsvotn, routinely described as cranky. If Fagradalsfjall had elements of the divine, others were not as beatific. Lava spurts from the ground in IcelandĮvery volcano, as we learned, has its own personality. It's just so much grander than you, it's kind of this almost divine kind of presence. Like so many other volcanologists who'd rushed to the eruption site in 2021, this self-described lab rat told us he was awed by the sheer power on display.Įd Marshall: You know you have work to do but there are times when you just sit there and stare at the volcano. You know, if you're worried about your town being covered by lava –īill Whitaker: You're more worried about this one When the lavas were still red hot they flowed at different speeds, some oozed out of the volcano, others exploded, moving as fast as 10 miles an hour.Įd Marshall: It's important to figure it out because they have different hazard potential. But Marshall wasn't expecting what they found next: crystals. The impossibly named machine is able to measure with pinpoint accuracy the chemical composition of the rock. Ed Marshall and Bill Whitaker at a University of Iceland lab. This trip, we met Marshall in his lab at the University of Iceland to see what he had found.Įd Marshall: We have an instrument called an ICPOESĮd Marshall: It's an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emissions Spectrometerīill Whitaker: OK. We watched as he scooped the molten lava, flash cooling it in water. In 2021, Ed Marshall, a Texas- trained geophysicist, showed us the lava wall when it was a mere 30 feet high. With this new magma came new discoveries. Already the retreat of glaciers in Iceland, they are causing a lot more of new magma being formed under Iceland than normally. So, if-if the glaciers are moving, it changes the force. This is the heat of the lava.įreysteinn Sigmundsson: The glaciers, they are pushing down on-on the earth. Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Iceīill Whitaker: It is freezing out here, but this – this is warm, huh?įreysteinn Sigmundsson: Yeah, feel it. Geophysicist Freysteinn Sigmundsson from the University of Iceland gave us a tour. Finally, we arrived to find a vast sea of volcanic rock just six months old. Our trucks had 42-inch tires but that was no match for snow that was as fine as sugar. So, we set off at the crack of dawn – that's an hour before noon-when the winter sun rises this far north. The lava field is like a record of the eruption. The warning time we have is not necessarily gonna be many weeks, but maybe just a couple of days. Kristin Jonsdottir: Right now, we are not seeing anything, but we also know that this can happen quite quickly. Kristin Jonsdottir: This feels much safer.īill Whitaker: So do you think the eruption here is completely over? In 2021 we had to veer away from the crater it was too dangerous to get any closer. We wanted to see what it looked like now, so we flew back to the same hill. In the end, scientists calculated there was enough lava to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every four seconds. We watched from a hilltop with seismologist Kristin Jonsdottir as waves of lava poured down the valley. But it was number five – this one – that stole the show. Lava boiled up through nine vents as the earth unzipped. We went back to Iceland to see how the work was progressing.ĭuring the 2021 eruption, we saw chunks of molten rock the size of cars cartwheel into the air. As we first reported in April, scientists have revealed some startling discoveries from the two eruptions, inching us closer to the day when eruptions will be forecast as we forecast rain. Many predicted a new seismic era for the land of fire and ice and last summer the same volcano exploded again. When the volcano finally blew, scientists scrambled for the equipment to record it. As the magma stirred, it triggered tens of thousands of earthquakes. A subterranean serpent of magma was coiling through the depths looking for a way out. Months before the Geldingadalir volcano erupted in 2021, Iceland's volcanologists knew it was coming. Volcanic eruptions in Iceland lead scientists to startling discoveries | 60 Minutes 13:19
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