In 2021, a volcano in Iceland directed researchers to important discoveries about Earth’s mantle.
On March 21st last year, Fagradalsfjall, a volcano that remained dormant for over 780 years, erupted. While the eruption led to a spike in tourism in the country, it also gave scientists a chance to look underneath the volcano. One group of researchers sent a helicopter to collect samples of the lava; after testing, the result was that the magma had small shards of crystal in it.
In addition, researchers discovered that the mantle (a layer of liquid magma between Earth’s core and crust) was made of different types of material depending on how close to the center of the planet the studied chunk was. Francis Deegan, a volcanologist and the co-author of the Journal of Nature Communications stated that, “We have a really detailed record of the different types of composition that we can find in the mantle now, and it must be very heterogeneous, very variable.”
Edward Marshall who graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Iceland said that these volcanic eruptions are very rare. “We were working all hours — you’re asleep and the volcano’s still erupting and you’re like, ‘I got to get back out there,’” he said as he scrambled to gather more samples of the liquid magma. Volcanoes usually erupt when enough magma from the Mantle mixes together under the volcano, called a hot spot. “This mixing process is an essential geologic process, but it’s never been directly observed,” stated Dr. Marshall.
Tectonic plates can create volcanoes if two of them smash into each other; this is called a convergent plate boundary. Iceland is notorious for having many volcanoes, mainly because it lies on the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. In Fagradalsfjall’s case, it is directly above both plates. In the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or Moho, the boundary between the crust and mantle, lots of Carbon Dioxide happened to reside there, under the volcano. As the gas decreased, hot magma filled in the spaces left behind, also contributing to the explosion, said Olafur Flovenz, director of the Iceland GeoSurvey.
Dr. Deegan and other collaborators also found that oxygen isotopes, different configurations of oxygen molecules, were practically the same around the site of the eruption. This helped solve the question about Iceland’s low levels of oxygen-18, or heavy oxygen. In addition, the crystals and lava came directly from Moho. Dr. Flovenz said, “For the first time we are looking at an active eruption on our oceanic crust where the lava is directly erupting from the mantle source … These are very exciting times, I had never had the hope that I would live to see this unrest and eruptions on this peninsula. This has been extremely interesting for the geosciences community.”
On March 21st last year, Fagradalsfjall, a volcano that remained dormant for over 780 years, erupted. While the eruption led to a spike in tourism in the country, it also gave scientists a chance to look underneath the volcano. One group of researchers sent a helicopter to collect samples of the lava; after testing, the result was that the magma had small shards of crystal in it.
In addition, researchers discovered that the mantle (a layer of liquid magma between Earth’s core and crust) was made of different types of material depending on how close to the center of the planet the studied chunk was. Francis Deegan, a volcanologist and the co-author of the Journal of Nature Communications stated that, “We have a really detailed record of the different types of composition that we can find in the mantle now, and it must be very heterogeneous, very variable.”
Edward Marshall who graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Iceland said that these volcanic eruptions are very rare. “We were working all hours — you’re asleep and the volcano’s still erupting and you’re like, ‘I got to get back out there,’” he said as he scrambled to gather more samples of the liquid magma. Volcanoes usually erupt when enough magma from the Mantle mixes together under the volcano, called a hot spot. “This mixing process is an essential geologic process, but it’s never been directly observed,” stated Dr. Marshall.
Tectonic plates can create volcanoes if two of them smash into each other; this is called a convergent plate boundary. Iceland is notorious for having many volcanoes, mainly because it lies on the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. In Fagradalsfjall’s case, it is directly above both plates. In the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or Moho, the boundary between the crust and mantle, lots of Carbon Dioxide happened to reside there, under the volcano. As the gas decreased, hot magma filled in the spaces left behind, also contributing to the explosion, said Olafur Flovenz, director of the Iceland GeoSurvey.
Dr. Deegan and other collaborators also found that oxygen isotopes, different configurations of oxygen molecules, were practically the same around the site of the eruption. This helped solve the question about Iceland’s low levels of oxygen-18, or heavy oxygen. In addition, the crystals and lava came directly from Moho. Dr. Flovenz said, “For the first time we are looking at an active eruption on our oceanic crust where the lava is directly erupting from the mantle source … These are very exciting times, I had never had the hope that I would live to see this unrest and eruptions on this peninsula. This has been extremely interesting for the geosciences community.”
