Ruminations

  A screenshot of the volcano from footage provided by RUV. The volcano in Geldingadalir, Iceland, is still going strong after almost three months since the eruption began. During this time,  it has changed both its form and character. After a few weeks of eruption along multiple vents, the activity is now centred on a single vent, which has grown in size progressively and now dwarfs its neighbouring, extinct ones. Eruption at this vent has varied from the occasionally explosive jets of fragmented lava to relatively quiescent effusion witnessed at present. Last week, Hannah Jane Cohen provided us with a nice, easy-to-understand summary of what the Geldingadalir volcano is telling us about volcanic processes. Eruption duration As Cohen notes, the volcano has not met the initial expectations of some of a relatively short-lived eruption. Those expectations were reasonable but probably based as much on gut feeling as scientific evidence. Yes, volcanoes such as the one in Geldingadalir ar