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The hazard of avolcanic eruption in Icelandis not lessen , and — if a fissure does open — lava could strive the Blue Lagoon resort and the Svartsengi geothermic power industrial plant in just days , an expert tell .
The magma in the 9.3 - mile - foresighted ( 15 kilometre ) magma dike , a near - perpendicular underground path , that formed a week ago is currently estimated to be 2,600 to 1,640 foot ( 800 to 500 meters ) below the surface . For an clap to take piazza , there must be an growth in pressure that would allow the magma tomove up to the Earth’s surface and damp through the crust .
The Blue Lagoon resort (pictured here), in the area north of the town of Grindavík near Hagafell, is the most likely place that a fissure will appear.
The dike has remain comparatively static over late days , accord to atranslated statementfrom the Icelandic Met Office ( IMO ) , and while some of the magma at the edges of the dike seem to be solidifying , the risk is still very high .
" I do retrieve an extravasation will take place , but the heavy enquiry is when that might happen,“Margaret Hartley , a senior lecturer in Earth science at the University of Manchester in the U.K. , assure Live Science in an electronic mail . " The past six daytime have been a waiting game . The figure and saturation ofearthquakeshas decreased since the meridian on Friday last week , but that is n’t needs a mansion that the volcanic crisis is dying down . "
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Map showing the location of the magma dike beneath Reykjanes Peninsula.
An eruption could take place anywhere along the dike , which course from Sundhnúk in the north , down into Grindavík and into the ocean . The region northerly of the town of Grindavík near Hagafell is the most likely place that a fissure will appear , representatives from the IMO wrote .
Alberto Caracciolo , a research worker at the University of Iceland ’s Institute of Earth Sciences , order Live Science in an e-mail that ab initio , a Brobdingnagian amount of magma enfeeble into the butch , but this has since stabilized to filling at a unvarying rate . The dyke is now growing and curtain raising up , cause ground contortion at the airfoil — as is apparent in the images of sinkholes that have opened in Grindavík .
" If this cognitive process continue , at some point the dike will be forced to move up towards the surface , " Caracciolo said , adding there is no meter reading the magma is ascending quickly right now . " If magma inflow keep at a changeless rate for an protracted period , I imagine the dike will grow and reach the surface in the coming days or calendar week . "
A sinkhole that opened up in Grindavik on Nov. 13.
An eruption would take place when an open fracture connect the magma dike to Earth ’s surface afford up , Hartley said . " The most potential way to create this fault is that a pressure flesh - up of gas bubbles in the dike will pressure magma towards the surface , breaking the gall apart , " she said . " The physical process is a bite like shaking up a can of fizzy drink — as soon as a crack opens in the top of the can , the drink escape with slews of frothing . "
If and when lava come out from the fissure , the magma would likely ooze out of the crack and move across the landscape painting . In July , when the nearbyFagradalsfjall volcano erupted , the fissure was 0.6 mile ( 1 km ) long . If an eruption takes blank space along the newly form dike , it would likely be like to that event , Caracciolo say .
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barrier are now being erect to protect infrastructure , and the country ’s largest dozer has been deployed to manufacture trenches to divert lava flow rate . However , there are still many unknowns over what could happen next .
" The extent of lava flows will variegate depending on the specific location where the crack give , on the magma output rate and on the duration of the eruption , " Caracciolo said . " However , in most of the scenarios , lava could reach the power industrial plant and the Blue Lagoon very speedily , in less than [ a ] few day . A similar fate is likely await for Grindavík , especially if the cleft open up up in the southernmost part of Hagafell . "
