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UPDATE : The vent in Icelanderupted for the third timeat around 6:00 a.m. local time on Thursday ( Feb. 8) .
The risk of infection of a volcanic eruption on Iceland ’s Reykjanes Peninsula is once again growing as magma cover to pool in the area 2.5 miles ( 4 klick ) north of the sportfishing town of Grindavík , harmonise to the Icelandic Met Office ( IMO ) .
A volcano is spewing lava and smoke as it erupts on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula on Jan. 14, 2024.
An estimated 318 million cubic foot ( 9 million cubic meter ) of magma now posture beneath Svartsengi , which is home to the Blue Lagoon resort and Svartsengi geothermal power plant . That ’s equivalent to the volume of around 3,600 Olympian - sized swimming syndicate .
Five 24-hour interval ago , on Feb. 1 , the volume of magma was reported to be 230 million three-dimensional feet ( 6.5 million cubic m ) , with the IMO already admonish officials thatthe volcano was prime to erupt again . " The estimated amount of magma under Svartsengi has now reached the low-down limit of the amount believed to have accumulated there before the last bam , " IMO representatives wrote in a translatedstatementon Monday ( Feb. 5 ) .
Between 318 million and 460 million three-dimensional invertebrate foot ( 9 million and 13 million cubic m ) of magma are retrieve to have accumulated in the same chamber before an eruption on Jan. 14 thatsent lava feed toward Grindavík .
Svartsengi is home to a geothermal power plant and the Blue Lagoon resort and spa.
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The soil began rising again following the extravasation and continues to blow up as liquefied stone tuck under the surface , although the charge per unit has slowed in the last few solar day , harmonize to the IMO statement . This pattern is the same as demesne movements recorded in the weeks and twenty-four hours preceding the eruption on Jan. 14 and a previous eruptionin December 2023 .
" There is therefore an increase chance of magma flow and eruption in the coming days or week , " IMO representative write .
Current hazard map from the IMO showing the areas at greatest risk of a volcanic eruption.
Predicting when and where an clap will take position is not possible . A peril mapping released by the IMO shows the areas believed to be at greatest risk , with a corridor stretch from Grindavík in the south to Stóra - skógafell to the northeast . Svartsengi , where the magma is pooling , is considered at a very humbled risk of a volcanic eruption .
However , temperature and pressure measurements taken from boreholes in Svartsengi could provide a warning that another eruption is on its manner .
" We see a substantial increase in the pressure in the boreholes before thedyke violation on Nov. 10,“Lilja Magnúsdóttir , the managing director of resourcefulness management at HS Orka geothermal might works in Svartsengi , tell Live Science in an electronic mail . A alike growth in pressure was also enter before of the extravasation on Dec. 18 , alerting staff to the possibility that another dike intrusion could culminate in an blast .
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" Around 40 [ to ] 50 minutes later on , it erupt , " Magnúsdóttir order . " So we made an automatic political program to detect this signal . If an alarm is triggered , the syllabus sends a monish e-mail to our shift at HS Orka and to the Icelandic Meteorological Office . "
The programme issued a admonition in the early time of day of Jan. 14 , auspicate an bang four hours and 20 minute by and by , Magnúsdóttir said . " We were also able to predict that it would erupt further to the south than in the previous eruption , " thanks to a stark alteration in insistence on the southern bound of the geothermal reservoir , she added .
