Despite the frequent and violent eruptions in Iceland, the odds of it happening during our trip are pretty small (sorry, no extra drama), so we took the opportunity to see how molten lava flows, cools, forms etc.
They take basalt from the 1918 Katla eruption near Vik, heat it in their furnace to 2,000°F, then let out ooze down their volcanic channel. Plenty warm in the room, but fascinating watching it flow over ice (many of the active volcanoes are under glaciers), gradually stop flowing and build on itself, and the various lava tubes and pockets they can reproduce in this controlled environment.
Very instructive and also impresses the awesome destructive power of the Earth changing herself.
The country has created an SMS warning system, not so much for explosive eruptions as for the tremendous flooding that might occur if an eruption occurred beneath one of the massive glaciers. Vik has built dams to buy time for its citizens, but the destructive force of volcanic flooding is evident along the entire southern coastline of Iceland.
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| That’s 1/2” bridge steel that Mother Nature mangled during an early 20th century glacial ice dam collapse |
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| An idea of the scoured devastation that a 60m high wall of flood water can create. It’ll be millennia before anything can grow in this space again, and it used to be pasture |
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