The Earth's Newest Volcano Is Spewing Lava Rivers

Bright Side

Mother Earth is putting on a fiery show! The planet's newest volcano has decided to steal the spotlight, erupting in grand fashion and spewing rivers of molten lava. Picture this natural spectacle: a volcanic performance complete with glowing lava rivers flowing down the slopes. Situated in a remote part of the South Sandwich Islands, this newly minted volcano is a testament to the dynamic and ever-changing nature of our planet. Scientists are geeking out over the chance to study this fresh eruption, providing us with a front-row seat to Earth's spectacular geologic theater.

Transcript

00:00When we think of active volcanoes, one region comes to mind, the ring of fire in the Pacific Ocean.

00:07Three-quarters of Earth's volcanoes sit within this belt.

00:10Compare the area to Australia, which doesn't have any volcanic activity.

00:15The old continent of Europe is also calm.

00:18Or at least, we like to think so.

00:21Can you guess what the most active volcano in Europe is?

00:24If you thought of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily in Italy, you were right.

00:30The volcano has erupted about 200 times and has been far from sleeping in recent decades.

00:36The last time this happened was in August 2023.

00:39The highest mountain in the Mediterranean is half a billion years old.

00:44But in Iceland, there is a much younger volcano.

00:47It sprang into action on the 10th of July 2023.

00:51In the afternoon, three fissures appeared in the ground on a peninsula in the southwest of the island.

00:57This was at a base of a small mountain peak.

01:01Its name means little ram in the local language.

01:04The volcano spewed molten lava high into the air.

01:07There were also gas plumes in the area.

01:10But the scientific community wasn't surprised by the event.

01:13They already knew about the volcanic area that stretches between the cities of Reykjavik and Keflavik.

01:22Its name is hard to pronounce.

01:23Hey, I want to buy a vowel.

01:25It had already erupted during the previous two summers.

01:28This activity came after eight centuries of dormancy.

01:32In the days leading up to the latest eruption,

01:35seismologists, the scientists who study earthquakes, recorded over 12,000 tremors.

01:40When the ground opened up in July, the fissures were over a mile and a half long.

01:46The following morning, two of them closed.

01:48All the lava was now coming out of the last fissure.

01:52It grew into an elongated cone.

01:54The simplest shape of volcano we are all familiar with.

01:58The lava soon filled a large crater.

02:00It grew almost 100 feet tall during the first week.

02:04And it is still growing.

02:05On the night when the eruption started, lava spread out in all directions.

02:10Its cinders set ablaze the dry moss in the vicinity.

02:14Local authorities closed off the surrounding area.

02:16There were toxic gases from the volcanoes and smoke from the burning moss.

02:21Firefighters flocked to the area.

02:23After a week, they proclaimed the area safe.

02:26Visitors soon came to witness the birth of Europe's youngest volcano.

02:30This form of tourism is quite developed in Iceland.

02:36People come from all over the world to watch active volcanoes.

02:40The land of fire and ice is home to more than 130 volcanoes.

02:44Some 30 of them are active.

02:47Now, I know what you're thinking right now.

02:49Is volcano tourism safe?

02:51In Iceland, it is.

02:52The country's authorities research and constantly monitor all of the hotspots.

02:57The island is dotted with several dozen seismic stations.

03:01These help researchers accurately predict future eruptions.

03:05And emergency services are accustomed to these sorts of events.

03:08They can quickly cordon off danger zones.

03:11This is what happened in 2010.

03:14A volcano in the south of the island, the name of which everyone struggled to pronounce, erupted.

03:19It spewed out a plume of steam and ash that was 7 miles high.

03:24This wasn't a fun time to be an air traveler.

03:27Winds carried the enormous plume southeast toward northern Europe.

03:31Many countries closed their airspace for several days for safety reasons.

03:35The volcano erupted in March, but the Earth was shaking from January the same year.

03:40So, seismologists knew that an eruption was approaching.

03:46When it comes to the continent's youngest volcano,

03:48the tourist infrastructure is already there.

03:52Visitors can leave their cars at a designated parking lot.

03:55Then, they go on a 5-hour-long trek.

03:59This leads to a viewing deck.

04:01Tourists are so close to the epicenter that they can feel the heat haze from the crater.

04:05The site is the most impressive at nighttime.

04:08Safety is never a concern.

04:10Scientists regularly chart out hazard maps that outline the borders of lava fields.

04:15This way, visitors who stick by the rules are never in harm's way.

04:20More than a week after the eruption started, a section of the crater collapsed.

04:25Lava flowed downhill west of the volcano.

04:28This majestic, smoldering-hot river is slow-moving lava.

04:32Scientists categorize it as an ah-ah type.

04:35The term is Hawaiian.

04:36It describes basaltic lava that has a rough and brittle surface.

04:41The flow is composed of broken lava blocks that are called clinkers.

04:45They fall off as the substance flows.

04:48This reveals red-hot areas.

04:50The cooler sections of lava are gray and black in color.

04:54When it moves forward, it produces a distinctive sound like shattering glass.

04:58Nearly a month after the eruption of the new volcano, we got aerial footage of an interesting phenomenon.

05:08A tornado formed directly over the lava flow.

05:11This occurs due to the high temperatures in the area.

05:14When the conditions are right, a column of heated air can easily turn into a mini-tornado.

05:20Scientists observed a similar event happen during the 2018 eruption of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii.

05:26The lava fields of Europe's second-largest island tell the story of the creation of Iceland.

05:32It sits above the place where the North American and Eurasian plates meet each other.

05:37Tectonic plates are huge, rocky chunks of Earth's most outer layer.

05:42There are roughly 20 of them.

05:43They rest on a partially molten layer of rock.

05:47All the lava we see on the surface starts its journey here.

05:50You could say that these plates float on molten rock.

05:53Their boundaries are unstable.

05:55So, when two plates grind past each other, they release tremendous amounts of energy.

06:01The formation of volcanoes is one result.

06:04These are places where the molten rock travels upward to the surface.

06:09Iceland began to form some 60 million years ago.

06:13The tectonic plates under the ocean drifted apart.

06:16Enough lava piled up on the surface to create solid ground.

06:20This ancient rock is under the waves today.

06:23As new lava reaches the surface and cools down, it pushes the old rock away from the center of the island.

06:30That's why the oldest parts of Iceland aren't 60 but only 16 million years old.

06:35The country's active lava fields are young in geological terms.

06:40Some of them are under 1,000 years old.

06:43Scientists consider the island a hotspot for volcanoes.

06:47Pun intended.

06:48Nearly a third of the basaltic lava that reaches the Earth's surface in recorded history came from Icelandic eruptions.

06:55Fisher swarms, like the ones before the 2023 eruption, cover 30% of the Nordic country.

07:02For this reason, only a quarter of the island is inhabited.

07:05Norse Vikings were the first people to settle in Iceland at the beginning of the 10th century.

07:11Nature threw them a loud welcoming party.

07:13Just a few years after their arrival, they witnessed one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in history.

07:20Vikings came from a region without volcanoes, so they had no clue as to what was going on.

07:28Today, Icelanders are used to such events.

07:31This is good because their homeland is entering a new era of volcanic activity.

07:35Volcanologists suspect that recent events are an introduction to decades of more frequent eruptions.

07:43The peninsula that is home to Earth's youngest volcano is just 17 miles southwest of Iceland's capital city.

07:50It's been dormant for a long time.

07:53Present-day eruptions there are a reminder that the natural processes that created Iceland are still ongoing.

07:59Recently, scientists discovered that there's a historical link between volcanic eruptions in the north of Europe and glaciers.

08:07Our planet went through at least five major ice ages.

08:11These were exceptionally lengthy periods when the average temperature on Earth dropped.

08:16The result was the expansion of ice sheets across northern Europe and North America.

08:21The last ice age ended some 10,000 years ago.

08:24Researchers are still trying to fully understand how these glacial periods affected volcanic activity.

08:31They suspect that the sheer weight of all that ice disrupts the flow of magma underground.

08:37When glaciers retreat, the pressure is lifted.

08:40This makes it easier for lava to flow upward to the surface where it bursts.

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