Scientists from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have detected geochemical signatures of magma pooling and melting beneath the subsurface during the “Fagradalsfjall Fires”, that began on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula in 2021.
Scientists from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have detected geochemical signatures of magma pooling and melting beneath the subsurface during the “Fagradalsfjall Fires”, that began on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula in 2021.
Continuous sampling of the erupted lavas from the Fagradalsfjall volcano enabled a detailed time-series analysis of geochemical signals. These show that the start of the eruption began with massive pooling of magma, contrasting initial hypothesis for magma ascent straight from the mantle.
Scripps Oceanography geologist James Day and his colleagues report on the analyses July 31 in the journal Nature.
“By collecting lavas in regular intervals, and then measuring their compositions in the laboratory, we can tell what’s feeding the volcano at depth,” said study lead Day. “It’s a bit like taking regular measurements of someone’s blood. In this case, the volcano’s ‘blood’ are the molten lavas that emanate so spectacularly from it.”
Read more at University of California - San Diego
Photo Credit: Gylfi via Pixabay
