New Findings in Iceland's Fagradalsfjall Eruption Can Help Understand How Volcanoes Work

One discovery can change the world, but it is not something anyone can stumble upon. However, scientists and volcanologists uncovered significant findings on how people understand volcanoes.

UC Santa Barbara Earth scientist Matthew Jackson and his team unfolded a process that they considered far more dynamic than anyone assumed in studying volcanoes for centuries, according to an article published in ScienceDaily.

The majestic view of Fagradalsfjall volcano is on the Reykjanes peninsula, southwest of Iceland.

It was a long time before Jackson and his team witnessed the birth of Fagradalsfjall in Iceland. The findings of the geologists' study are published in the journal Nature.

According to the Earth Observatory of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a new volcanic eruption happened in Fagradalsfjall on Iceland's Reykjanes on August 3, 2022. It added that Meradalir Valley, the eruption site, was about a kilometer in the last year's eruption in Geldingadalir. The eruption was preceded by weeks of the earthquake.

Reports said that the Fagradalsfjall volcano's eruption did not threaten people's lives and property. The volcano showed effusive eruption in which the lava did not burst from the earth's crust.

Fagradalsfjall volcano

(Photo by JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP via Getty Images)

According to earth scientist Jackson who witnessed the Fagradalsfjall, the earthquake swarm was intense, reaching 50,000 or more earthquakes that shook the earth for weeks and brought Iceland's population on edge. He said that the earthquakes were magnitude four or higher.

On the other hand, he said that there could be more than a factor of 1,000 rates of change for chemical indicators and the samples from the volcano in Iceland.

What is fascinating was the Fagradalsfjall eruption revealed more compositional variability than Mount Kilauea in decades. Kilauea is located in the islands of Hawaii, and it is considered active in volcanic mass.

When the volcano erupted, visitors and scientists were astonished to witness a closer look at spattered lava flowing slowly due to the winds blowing the gases away.

In ScienceDaily, the research paper describes the eruption as 'depleted magma.' Experts said they have never observed before in near real-time.

By April, evidence revealed that the chamber was said to be recharged. It can be by deeper and enriched type melts with a different composition sourced from regions of an upwelling mantle plume beneath Iceland.
The new magma showed a less modified chemical composition, noting carbon dioxide gas's higher magnesium content. It indicates that the deeper magma's fewer gases escaped.
By May, the magma dominated by flow was enriched and deeper.

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Challenges

According to the study, geologists led by Sæmundur Halldórsson of the University of Iceland wanted to find answers to the biggest challenges of scientists studying the volcano.

How deep in the mantle from which magma originated
What happens in the volcano reservoir before or during eruptions, and how beneath the surface was it stored?
However, they are hampered by the eruption unpredictability, inaccessibility, and remoteness of the volcano's active sites.

Jackson shared that they were surprised when he thought he was close to figuring out how volcanoes work.