Magma is Right Beneath an Iceland Town; A Geologist’s Perspective on What Happens Next

Magma is right underneath the town of Grindavik, potentially only at few dozen meters depth. What happens next could be quite destructive, or this scenic coastal town might just barely escape significant destruction if the magma moves further inland or much further out to see. This video will discuss my perspective as a geologist on what might happen next at Iceland’s Reykjanes volcano. Thumbnail Photo Credit: This work “ReykjanesImg4“, is a derivative of a photo (resized, cropped, text overlay, overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo)) from “Mount Thorbjorn“, by: David Stanley, davidstanleytravel, 2022, Posted on Flickr, Flickr account link: , Photo link: , CC BY 2.0. “ReykjanesImg4“ is used & licensed under CC BY 2.0 by Source article for the purported magma which might (or might not) already be at only a few dozens of meters depth underneath the town of Grindavik: Iceland road closures: Volcano alert levels: NASA EOSDIS Worldview satellite imagery Copyright © 2012-2023 United States Government as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. All Rights Reserved. Associated license for NASA EOSDIS Worldview: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). We acknowledge the use of imagery from the NASA Worldview application (), part of the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: ) (YouTube membership: ) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: ) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: ) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under “fair use“. If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at tccatron@ and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video’s thumbnail image: Public Domain: CC BY 2.0: CC BY 4.0: Sources/Citations: [1] / Iceland Met Office [2] Halldórsson, S.A., Marshall, E.W., Caracciolo, A. et al. Rapid shifting of a deep magmatic source at Fagradalsfjall volcano, Iceland. Nature 609, 529–534 (2022). , CC BY 4.0. [3] Source of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) methodology and criteria: Newhall, C. G., and Self, S. (1982), The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism, J. Geophys. Res., 87(C2), 1231–1238, doi: Accessed / Read by on Oct 5th, 2022 [4] VEIs, dates/years, composition, bulk tephra volume for volcanic eruptions shown in this video which were assigned a VEI 4 or larger are sourced from the LaMEVE database (British Geological Survey © UKRI), Used with Permission [5] NASA Worldview, EOSDIS Worldview, (Satellite imagery: Terra / MODIS), at [6] , “Direct: Magma could be at tens of meters depth“, 0:00 Current Situation 0:46 Potential Eruption Locations 2:00 Air Traffic Question 3:44 Effects at Other Volcanoes? 5:21 Conclusion