Iceland Awaits Next Eruptive Phase as Magma Body Pressurizes: Geologist Analysis 

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Thank you Shawn - and thank you Amanda Jo. We continue to watch and wait and hope for the best. Have a fabulous trip to Iceland, and stay safe. Cheers from the "Team" Down Under … 😜🌴🌴🌴

Thanks for this update, Shawn. I guess the bottom line is "if you live on a spreading plate boundary, this is what you can expect!" What's fascinating for me, as a retired geophysicist, is witnessing the formation of new crust happening, effectively in real time. So 'plate tectonics' is real, and not just a theory, which it was when I first got into the business - around 1970. Back then, it was all explained by 'subsidence' and 'uplift', with little if any thought given to what might be causing them. Amazing how far geological thinking has progressed, even in my lifetime!

Thank you Professor! Thank you Amanda Jo❤

Safe journey to Iceland. May you and your students have a good time learning about our wonderful planet. Say hello to Amanda Jo for the team.

Your dedication to Subject is awesome

Thanks Shawn for the update. The wait and see is always to hard. Appreciate all you do in getting us the updates. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for taking the time on your weekend to provide a great fact-based update! Safe travels to Iceland!

Thank you for the update @Shawn Willsey.

Thank you for doing this update. Much appreciated and TY to Amanda Jo as well.

Thanks for the update Shawn✌️

Looks like you could be lucky and something will happen when you are in Iceland, lucky man! We can’t wait to see any footage/videos you can do while you are there. Thank you again for sharing all this info with us and helping us understand better what is happening and why... invaluable Shawn 😀

Love the updates! Thanks also to Amanda Jo!

You are awesome Shawn! Love your updates! I cannot tell you how much you have taught me.

Thanks for the update @ Shawn Willsey...your commentary has helped me learn so much about volcanic activity!😊

People in Iceland are worried that the next eruption could very well be a big one.

I'm just an Engineer but I guess the slower inflation created more time to heat up the surrounding rocks to increase flexibility to grow without eruption. The next eruption however might be bigger as what we have seen since October last year. I hope Icelanders are able to protect the vital parts of Grindavik....

Thank you again, Mr.Willsey and also Amanda Jo for this very clear informations! Sooo good! Greetings from Germany.

Thank you for providing these updates. Also congratulations on 105k subscribers.

Even if there are no dramatic fireworks for months to come, we are getting a good insight into patient monitoring and growing knowledge as time ticks by. Have a good trip and thanks to the people on the ground in Iceland that helpmake your updates possible. It is much appreciated.

Another great update level headed

Thanks for your update..we here in South of Germany waiting for Polarlights...

Aloha, from Makaha.....Mahalo for the updates

Thank you, Shawn.

Love the updates! Thank you!

Thank you so much professor in teaching all that which we didn’t think we’d be interested in, you geology show and Iceland included. If and when you Amanda Jo tell her we love her and her country!

Thank you!

Thank you Shawn 😊 fascinating update mysterious mother nature will keep us all guessing 😊

Thanks Shawn. It is always good to hear an assessment of the situation from you. I know on your channel I will get facts, not crazy speculation. Hate to say I wish for an eruption while you are in Iceland, might be great for you to see but not so great for the people living there. Have a wonderful trip.

Thanks for the update. Interesting as usual.

Hi Shawn and everyone from New York

Thanks for all of your hard work man!

Your students are really lucky to go with you to Iceland at this time! Wish I could, too. Thanks much for inspiring and educating your avid GeoTeam audience. I look forward to every episode!!

Always enjoy your updates Shawn. I hope your students enjoy your classes as well.

Thanks

It’s interesting looking at the inflation graph and comparing it to a stress/strain graph comparing brittle to plastic materials. Those initial inflation events looked more like brittle behavior, while this latest inflation looks more plastic. This would seem to coincide with the ground heating up and becoming more elastic and possibly taking longer to inflate before erupting.

always like watching your videos thanks

Hi. Glad to hear your update before your trip. A non-Iceland question. Are you planning any more Craters of the Moon videos in honor of their centennial?

Thanks for the update. Safe journey to you and your students.

hey Shawn! thanks for much for these updates. I am actually flying to Iceland tonight for 2 weeks. The trip has been planned for a while - hoping the eruption starts again soon. I am a student looking to understand more about geology, and I was really hoping that maybe we could meet up for a day once you’ve arrived. Please do consider.

Safe and exciting journey! Thanks for your updates and knowledge!

Thanks for the update Shawn , have a wonderful trip to Iceland very jealous

Note on the last few gps data points, they are less reliable due to the ongoing geomagnetic storm which interferes with the gps and is also why the error bars are much larger

Its a Hurry up and Wait sort of thing.

Thank you enjoy your videos iam learning lots from them

Thank you Shawn for this concise and fact-based update, furthermore done on a Saturday! That’s dedication :) And thanks to Amanda Jo for helping you like she always does :) We'll keep monitoring the situation until the next event, which might even happen while you’re in Iceland (lucky you! ;) I see that some of the latest GPS data points from the last couple days are really off line, hmmm… I wonder if the huge solar activity going on right now could be affecting the satellites and therefore the GPS data…? By the way we saw the Northern lights for the 1st time ever, even though we’re at a latitude of 48°N here!! Such an exceptional and magical moment :))) Thanks again for your clear and professional analysis, enjoy your Sunday!

It is interesting how a particular objective observation, such as uplift, can result in two separate conclusions. They are of the opinion that more pressure is required to break through, whereas my take is that the rock is warmer, more elastic, and thus requires more volume to reach the critical pressure threshold.

just north of the lava overtop on L12, half way up the berm is a lava burn through, several other people flying drone have shown the burn though area,

That the eruption slowly slowed and stopped while land rise continues suggests that the eruption is somehow self terminating. Possibly expansion of heated rocks around the conduit to the surface? Perhaps the next eruption will have to find its way through cold or recently cooled rock-just speculating😅

Thank you for your thoughtful, scientific, and measured interpretation of what you see. When you get this logic it makes it all a lot easier to understand and to believe. Thank you,

You seem to be quite knowledgeable and practical in your thinking . What are your views on the Nebraska Rainwater Basins and the Carolina Bays formations ? There seems to be too many naive hypothesis flying about (pun intended !) Nathan uk

Thanks for the update Shawn! 😀

As human lifespan is short in geological time, take every earth event that you witness and count your lucky stars!😁 Thanks for all the informative updates.

Good morning on this Sunday morning! I am late getting to this video but I always appreciate your updates. Always interesting! Thanks for sharing and have a great trip! Stay safe! 😊

I can't help but feel concerned for the power plant. How many times can magma fill up underneath that impenetrable rock and not gradually weaken it more and more?

Kilauea earthquake activity has quieted down a bit.....still waiting for Kilauea to wake up.....

Thanks Shawn. A good update.

Thanks for the update, Shawn. Hoping you and your students have a fabulous trip, with potentially some new “baby rocks” being born. 🙂 Wishing your wife Happy Mothers Day.

Morning Prof. Great as always. Thanks so very much.

Thanks for the update Shawn, and thanks for all the info Amanda Jo. I really enjoy these updates. Enjoy the trip to Iceland and hope you and Amanda Jo get to meet up and saw a proper hello - here's a few dollars to buy a few coffee's when you meet up.😀

Could the last eruption that kept going have been an offshoot magma supply rather than the main magma reservoir that has continued to keep rising. Thanks getting very interesting again love your work

Thank you, I love knowing what is going on. I think I’m nosy for Icelandic eruptions. Di…..Cumbria

They're building berms to protect the town, but what if it erupts in town within the berm walls ?

thanks Shawn! I bet you are very excited to be visiting Iceland when you will in all probability witness the next eruption! Safe travels! 🙏

14:30 "Soda lids do not affect the work" Is that a mistranslation, a reference to fizzy drink bottle caps, a reference to sodium carbonate, or something else entirely?

Safe travels.

Thank you for the updates. Perhaps any event will take place when you have front row seats during your trip? 👍

Thank You, I doesnt look good for Grindevik to return to normal though.

You mention extra elasticity in the sill after previous eruptions before breaking rocks is causing the extra threshold with every new event. Isn't it also, because of that breaking of rocks during the previous intrusions/eruptions that with these broken rocks the sill itself has been (a bit) larger than at previous times? So the sill can hold extra magma (because of the extra room and elasticity) before it reaches the point of build pressure and next event happens?

How is the volume of stored magma determined / calculated ?

I saw two stair step periods of time on the red line on the graph for inflation....I was wondering what caused that? Thanks for your great reporting.

What does it mean when an EQ shows negative depth? Saw one at -2 km in CA the other day.

Is the fishing fleet once again in operation out of Grindavik Iceland.

When I looked at the GPS data today, it had me rather puzzled. The stations in Grindavik seemed to be dropping slightly, most stations east of Grindavik showed the same trend. The stations along the north coast of Reykjaness had a little rise. The non-geologist me is most puzzled now.

Having been round the south west road block outside Grindavík is it not possible for the earthquakes potentially happening in the water off the coast could that not cause a tsunami event?

yay!

Lots of love to Icelanders. Thinking of you.

Off topic Shawn but curious to know why Korea is so close to Japan with little earthquake activity. The following is what I pulled off the internet: The average number of earthquake events has been about twenty per year since 1978, and generally the magnitude of these have not been so high, from 2.0 to 5.0 on the Richter scale. The highest magnitude recorded yet of an earthquake in the Korean Peninsula is 5.3, and it occurred in 1980.

It might sound silly but why protect Grindavik with burms if nobody is going to live there any more due to the constant danger? Haven’t everyone moved out and the Government agreed to buy the homes from the residents so they can build or buy homes elsewhere?

If you look at the EQs it feels like its turning clockwise? | To /

looking atthe earthquakes and the shallow earth quakes along the Dike, and will most likely happen south of Hagafell, like the January eruption, and could happen in western Grindavik or in the are close to the January eruption. the shallow quakes today was south west of Þorbjörn between Hagafell.

Got a question is there or why don't they just find a safe way to relieve the pressure and create a safe path/chenal for the lava to travel down Or is that impossible with our technology

A possible evacuation would have me worried sick I live in a coastal region well protected by dunes so the risk of flooding is next to zero. However if I had to evacuate I'd be in deep trouble. I have three cats, two I can catch within minutes but the third one is impossible to capture. I don't wamt to leave her but unless I can call animal rescue to help catch her I may have to leave her or risk all four of us dying

Thanks so much for the, as always, great informative update! Gotta tell You that I envy You for going to Iceland .. But not in a bad way oc..! 😅

Can Magma in the chamber lack viscosity to infiltrate through cracks/faults and is just happy to stay there and push ground level up? Or would all magma in such chambers have roughly the same viscosity?

Has Iceland begun the planning and/or construction on another geothermal plant, in a different location, to replace the current one in case of it being destroyed by an eruption?

They need to protect the harbor which I’d beyond Grindavik.

when a river of lava forms, could they use dynamite to open the bank opposite of any residential area so the lava moves away structures?

I don't see the win condition here for Grindavik, or the purpose of investing in more defenses. Something tells me even if this event ends, they won't let the citizens back.

Could they pump sea water on the leading edge of the lava flow to form a lava wall? Yes, I know it's probably a stupid idea.

whenever the lava threatens a road why not cover the road with a 13 foot of dirt? after the flow is over it would be able to tunnel under the harden flow and open the road.

I would say it's time to abandon the town the power plant the Blue lagoon everything and stop wasting their taxpayers money because these are options are going to continue for years to come they're not going to stop

It will erupt again and soon, and it will be big, I think you’re going to see the earthquake clusters move up and down the rift.

I have been wondering for some time if the inflation of the flow to the south has changed the topography enough to constitute a barrier to any flow from a fissure to the north?

The Connells! I saw those guys live first in 1985. One of the United States is most unappreciated bands. And a bunch of great guys. What's your connection?

..Thanks for content and diverse information. Been following your channel in AK, USA as time permits.. With late spring; and after-effects of longer than usual winter season.. From the localized situation, my other RU-vid channels are great diversions too. Thank you again! ~ small town AK-USA🇺🇸❄🍄🌤