Basaltic lava flow eruption (early morning, 23 March 2021) (Geldingadalur Valley, Iceland) 3

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(Web camera screen capture video taken in the early morning of 23 March 2021.)

On 19 March 2021, a basaltic lava flow eruption started in the Geldingadalur Valley, next to the Fagradalsfjall Volcano in southwestern Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula. This followed a swarm of about 50,000 earthquakes that occurred during the previous month.

The erupting mound is a spatter cone - such volcanoes are small to very small, steep-sided cones formed by the accumulation and solidification of blobs of lava that sputtered from a vent. They are usually basaltic in composition.

Additional smaller spatter cones are present on either side of the main cone.

Iceland is a volcanic island in the North Atlantic Ocean between Britain and Greenland. It is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, along which the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate separate and new oceanic crust forms. Seismicity in the area is due to subsurface magma movement from hotspot (mantle plume) activity, as well as seafloor spreading (= tectonic divergence). Magma reaching the surface results in volcanic eruptions. Some famous eruptions in Iceland include Laki (1783), Surtsey (1963-1967), Eldfell (1973), Hekla (1991, 2000), Eyjafjallajökull (2010), and Grimsvötn (2011).

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Credit

James St. John

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