On March 19, 2021, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland exploded for the first time in almost 800 years, causing an eruption that lasted six months.
Scientists decided to study the eruption by taking samples of the lava every few days. According to mynewsdesk.com, “oxygen isotopes [in the lava] can help scientists…determine if magma is mantle-derived or if it interacted with crustal materials as it made its way to the surface.” A team from the University of Oregon, Uppsala University, University of Iceland, and Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) found that the eruption “contain[ed] roughly half of the entire diversity of mantle-derived magmas previously recorded for the whole of Iceland.”
This means that the magma in the Fagradalsfjall volcano came from multiple places in the Earth’s mantle, all of which had equal oxygen isotope amounts. The magma also wasn’t exposed to any “crustal materials” when coming to the surface. The samples also revealed that the lava that spewed from the Fagradalsfjall volcano contained crystals, and researchers found that these crystals “contained a wide range of material from different parts of the mantle”.
Normally, the lava from volcanic eruptions is a mixture of the “small magma flows” under the volcano. This means that the resulting magma which accumulates in the crust doesn’t have the same chemical composition as the individual magma flows.
According to a study done by Olafur Flovenz, who is the director of the Iceland GeoSurvey, when Fagradalsfjall erupted, the magma that came out of the volcano came directly from the Mohorovicic Discontinuity (Moho), which marks the border between the Earth’s crust and mantle. This indicates that the lava in the volcano’s eruption came directly from the earth’s mantle.
In the four weeks preceding the eruption of the volcano, there was a lot of seismic activity near Fagradalsfjall, in the Reykjanes peninsula. Each year since 2014, there have been 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes in the area. However, more than 50,000 earthquakes were counted in those four weeks alone. While most of them could barely be felt, a few surpassed magnitude five. Scientists are using these earthquakes to assist them in analyzing the magma movement patterns before the eruption.
Link to Article:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658688653049x483566818130665200/In%20Iceland%2C%20a%20Volcanic%20Eruption%20Brings%20Researchers%20Closer%20to%20Earth%E2%80%99s%20Core%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
Scientists decided to study the eruption by taking samples of the lava every few days. According to mynewsdesk.com, “oxygen isotopes [in the lava] can help scientists…determine if magma is mantle-derived or if it interacted with crustal materials as it made its way to the surface.” A team from the University of Oregon, Uppsala University, University of Iceland, and Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) found that the eruption “contain[ed] roughly half of the entire diversity of mantle-derived magmas previously recorded for the whole of Iceland.”
This means that the magma in the Fagradalsfjall volcano came from multiple places in the Earth’s mantle, all of which had equal oxygen isotope amounts. The magma also wasn’t exposed to any “crustal materials” when coming to the surface. The samples also revealed that the lava that spewed from the Fagradalsfjall volcano contained crystals, and researchers found that these crystals “contained a wide range of material from different parts of the mantle”.
Normally, the lava from volcanic eruptions is a mixture of the “small magma flows” under the volcano. This means that the resulting magma which accumulates in the crust doesn’t have the same chemical composition as the individual magma flows.
According to a study done by Olafur Flovenz, who is the director of the Iceland GeoSurvey, when Fagradalsfjall erupted, the magma that came out of the volcano came directly from the Mohorovicic Discontinuity (Moho), which marks the border between the Earth’s crust and mantle. This indicates that the lava in the volcano’s eruption came directly from the earth’s mantle.
In the four weeks preceding the eruption of the volcano, there was a lot of seismic activity near Fagradalsfjall, in the Reykjanes peninsula. Each year since 2014, there have been 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes in the area. However, more than 50,000 earthquakes were counted in those four weeks alone. While most of them could barely be felt, a few surpassed magnitude five. Scientists are using these earthquakes to assist them in analyzing the magma movement patterns before the eruption.
Link to Article:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658688653049x483566818130665200/In%20Iceland%2C%20a%20Volcanic%20Eruption%20Brings%20Researchers%20Closer%20to%20Earth%E2%80%99s%20Core%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
