Is climate change lighting a fuse under Iceland's volcanoes?

The Manila Times

Is climate change lighting a fuse under Iceland's volcanoes?  Toxic sulfurous gas, carrying the telltale reek of rotten eggs, wafts through vents in the steep walls of Iceland’s Viti crater, while carbon dioxide bubbles to the surface of the milky blue crater lake. Veils of steam wreathed the landscape of loose rock in eerie half-light. Through this forbidding terrain – 'Viti' is derived from the Icelandic for 'hell'– Michelle Parks, a volcanologist with the Icelandic Meteorological Office, picked her way toward the water’s edge one day last August. With a monitor strapped to her hip to warn her if the gases reached dangerous levels, she stooped to submerge a temperature probe in the lake – 26.4 degrees Celsius (79.5 degrees Fahrenheit), consistent with recent readings. Regardless of what the scientists there ultimately find, the interplay between volcanoes and ice will remain a chief worry among volcanologists.    REUTERS VIDEO   Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net     Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews #iceland #viti

Transcript

00:00If you had to come back up here in a hurry, it would be difficult, right?

00:25So I'm just explaining it to you so you're aware what you're getting into, okay?

00:31The gas emissions alone can be very dangerous, okay?

00:34Here you're taking a greater risk because you're actually in an old phreatic explosive

00:39crater and this is a site of active degassing.

00:51This is most likely carbon dioxide degassing and as I said, I can't tell you if this is

00:57a dangerous level in the lake because we haven't measured it yet, but I'll be measuring the

01:01fumaroles here.

01:31So we're working on this large project now which is called ISVOLC and this is investigating

01:41the effects of climate change and the ice retreat on future volcanic and seismic activity

01:47in Iceland.

01:53So at the moment, glaciers cover approximately 10% of Iceland and the glaciers are presently

01:59retreating as a result of current day global warming.

02:03So this can influence volcanism in a number of ways.

02:08So firstly, more magma is being generated in the mantle as a result of decompression

02:14melting and this is essentially because of the unloading when the ice melts from the

02:20glaciers and then the rebound of the crust.

02:24So on top of that, it can affect the stress fields in the crust.

02:28So this can actually change or alter magma migration pathways, which means that we could

02:34have new intrusions in different areas than what we've seen prior.

02:38I think it's very likely that we will see future changes, but the question of course

02:43is when will this start happening and by how much will it affect volcanic activity?

02:58So on top of that, it can affect the stress fields in the crust.

03:13So I mean, Iceland is essentially one of the best places in the world to study this.

03:18It's a natural laboratory because we have both volcanism and glaciers.

03:24So at the moment, about 10% of Iceland is covered by glaciers and we have over 32 active

03:32volcanoes here, many of which will be influenced by the GIA.

03:54What?

04:23So every year, for my decades of studies here, the changes of the ground here have

04:29been on the centimetre scale.

04:31But then suddenly, when the unrest began, we have had over 70 centimetres of uplift.

04:37So that's a lot.

04:38That's a big pressure increase.

04:48In the last few decades, people have been more wondering about the beauty of volcanoes.

04:58Small eruptions, people going out to look at an eruption, seeing how spectacular they

05:03are.

05:04There are many benefits of volcanoes, all the geothermal heat, we heat all the houses

05:10with geothermal, so lots of benefits.

05:13But now, with the activity in southwest Iceland, where a lot of property has been destroyed

05:19and people have needed to move out, we are again reminded about how hazardous volcanoes

05:25are.

05:26Yeah, I've heard about it, but no, I don't.

05:56Because nobody has seen this place.

06:16So you can see where the glacier line was in 1890.

06:21So the Geodatabase Institute of Denmark was mentioning the glacier here in 1903.

06:30So that is a process of over two kilometres.

06:34This is 30 kilometres from here.

06:37So I'm mentioning it here, here and here.

06:41So that was in the first 15 years.

06:44It was a little bit forward, 10 metres backward, nothing big changes.

06:50But the last 10 years, it's going to be 100 metres each year, as one football field.

07:01I think, of course, it's just devastating to see, like looking at photo albums and seeing

07:08like, oh my God, you know, when I was growing up, the glaciers were so much bigger.

07:14I've sometimes said to people like, it is like watching your friends disappear and having

07:19a very rough time.

07:20And we look at the glaciers out of our, you know, kitchen window every day.

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