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Earth

A Volcano Just Erupted in Iceland (sfgate.com) 57

Posted by EditorDavid from the lots-of-lava dept.
The Associated Press reports: A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years... The glow from the lava could be seen from the outskirts of Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, which is about 32 kilometers (20 miles) away. The Department of Emergency Management said it was not anticipating evacuations because the volcano is in a remote valley, about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the nearest road.
The report adds that initial aerial footage "showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions."
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A Volcano Just Erupted in Iceland More

A Volcano Just Erupted in Iceland

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  • I posted this story fifteen minutes ago. You should have checked Firehose first.

    • Re:Stolen story (Score:5, Funny)

      by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday March 19, 2021 @10:20PM (#61178054)

      Serves you right for taking the extra time to spell the name of the volcano correctly.

      • Re:Stolen story (Score:5, Funny)

        by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Saturday March 20, 2021 @03:51AM (#61178562)
        He had to double-check that Rjkjallaftljllskndftj llaborkeyafjllalt was the actual name of the volcano and not just his cat running over the keyboard (that should be one word but the site's moronic "lameness filter" won't allow it).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          We need a "funny because it's true" mod.

          • Re:Stolen story (Score:5, Informative)

            by Rei ( 128717 ) on Saturday March 20, 2021 @08:38AM (#61178956) Homepage

            Protip: long words are compound words, and they become much easier to read if you know where to break them up. Since compounds are generally formed in the genitive singular or genitive plural, they usually end with -a, -u, -ar, or -s. So look for an -a, -ar, or -s at least a few letters from the start of a possible compound, and try inserting a break. Example:

            Fagradalsfjall -> Fagra + dals + fjall = (Beautiful Valley)'s Mountain = Beautiful-Valley Mountain
            Eyjafjallaj*kull -> Eyja + fjalla + j*kull = (Islands' Mountains)'s Glacier = Glacier of the Mountains of the Islands
            Reykjavík -> Reykja + vík = Smoke's Cove = Smoky Cove
            Steingríms fj*rður -> Steingríms + fj*rður = Steingrímur's Fjord
            Mjóafjarð arvegur -> Mjóa + fjarðar + vegur = Narrow + Fjord's + Road = Narrow-Fjord Road.

            (Had to substitute * for [O-umlaut] and add a space into the last two to get past Slashdot's terrible ascii-art filter :P

            Once you have your compound word broken down into components, put heavy emphasis on the first syllable of each part. E.g. "FAG-ra", not "fag-RA" or "fag-ra". The first syllable should be literally double the length of any syllables that follow. The net result is that you get an unambiguous rhythmic flow that emphasizes where the components start. :)

            Doesn't always work, mind you. Example:

            Landmanna laugar -> (Land + manna) + laugar; not "Landma + nnala + ugar" :) Land is in the nominative, as part of the subcompound "landmanna" (Countrymen's)

            If anyone wants to get deeper into pronunciation than just "where to split": Some basic pronunciation rules to avoid common mistakes:

            J is pronounced like an English Y (think German)
            Rs are alveolar trills (or alveolar taps if said quickly). Like the Spanish R. If you can't do a trill, just do a tap.
            LL is a lateral tongue click. Tongue at the top of the mouth, let pressure build, then let it spill out to the sides all at once. Should actually be easy to get with only a minor amount of practice. Some people will say it's like the "tl" in "battle", and that's rather the right sound, but if you just say that, people will tend to make an extra syllable out of it, and it's not an extra syllable - just a clicky consonant.
            AU is pronounced OY - not OW like in German.
            Á is like the german AU / english "OW". A is like in English "father"
            EI is pronounced like the letter "A" - not like the letter I as in German.
            [O-UMLAUT] is like an English EH said through puckered lips
            É is like English "YEH", E is like English "EH"
            Í is like the English "EE", I is like in "pig".
            Ý and Y are synonyms for Í and I, respectively
            Ó is like the English "OH", O is more like "AW"
            Ú is like the English "OO", U is more like "UH"
            Ð is a voiced TH, like in "this"
            [THORN] (can't type it, Slashdot will filter it) is an unvoiced TH, like in "thin"

            There's more rules than that, but that's a start :)

    • The story here is citied from the AP with the story linked to SFGate in the article. More than one outlet is allowed to report on news events.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      There's no reason at all to expect this to turn into an ashy eruption. By all standards, it's a nice clean low-volume lava tourist eruption. Perfectly located, too (was watching the glow last night from the turnoff to the Blue Lagoon) :)

  • Sounds like marshmallow time to me!! :)

    • Iceland? No problem [satwcomic.com], they've got it covered [satwcomic.com] in any event.

    • ... but wiener sausages. I have just in front of me a picture of my father-in-law picnicking with his youngsters besides a smoking hot lava stream in 1976, near Krafla in NE-Iceland. They're all BBQ-ing wieners, guess you'd call it Hot Dogs. Later that summer it was hot enough for scrambled eggs. Retrospectively, perhaps not the ideal environment for a family picnick...

  • I swear these names aren't onomatopoeias of the sounds two drunken men make in a fist fight. You can just ask the mayor Eggertsson. ;)

  • Rei, we miss you girl. Hope you saved Reykjavík with your noble sacrifice.

  • "first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.."

    Come on, the whole island is volcanic.
    I remember the iselandic people trying to save one of their harbours years ago - it was featured in the National Geographic magazine.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pahles ( 701275 )

      in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.

      If you're gonna quote, quote correctly.

    • Re:Geo power (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Saturday March 20, 2021 @05:01AM (#61178642) Homepage

      Reykjanesskagi, not Iceland in general :)

      But fun fact about the Heimaey eruption that you reference. Back when nuclear power first emerged on the scene, it was widely believed that it was going to displace all other power sources. Indeed, when they were building the Straumsvík alumium smelter and Búrfellsvirkjun (hydro plant), there was a lot of talk about how that would be the last smelter in the world powered by hydropower. During the time, a bid had been requested for a small nuclear reactor to power Heimaey (Vestmannaeyjar / Westman Islands), provide for municipal heating, energy for fish processing and drying, etc. It ultimately ended up going nowhere, but the fun part is that the reactor would have been located at the base of Eldfell - the then-thought-extinct volcano that erupted in 1973, a location now deep under lava.

      Certainly would have made the eruption more.... "interesting" ;)

      • A perfect hideout for a James Bond villain. An abandoned nuclear power plant hidden under a crust of lava?

        The dude could look particularly menacing with a mix of lava and radiation burns, which he could according to some twisted logic, blame on James Bond as motivation for seeking revenge?

        Especially after the flashback opening to the movie, right after the musical intro of the naked Bond women in silhouette, when after fighting Bond on a cliff overlooking the reactor, he fell into the stream of lava c

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          .... this actually quite a good idea for a James Bond plot ;) Seriously, a 1960s-era reactor with little anti-proliferation controls would be a brilliant thing for a Bond villain to want to occupy. And the thermal output could easily be excused as just geothermal heat.

      • Yes, lots of great places to build nuke plants. At a base of a volcano is not one.

        HOWEVER, I am now starting to wonder if maybe that would not be a great place to build nuke waste site. allow the lava to cover and harden it. It would be nice and secured.

  • If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend the volcano tour we took a few years ago. You ride an industrial strength elevator down inside. We only spent three days on Iceland, but it was surprisingly wonderful with amazing waterfalls, mountains, and a chance to see the northern lights (we weren't lucky). https://insidethevolcano.com/ [insidethevolcano.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      A note to tourists, and this should go without saying, but I keep encountering tourist after tourist who seems baffled by this fact (not necessarily you, dcw3):

      The northern lights are visible at night.
      There is no night during the summertime.
      If you come in the summer, you will not see the northern lights.

      </psa>

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        This peaks on the Summer Solstice (June 21). We had plenty of darkness in September.

        WTF is wrong with /. filter and links now causing it to claim they look like ASCII art? I've had this three times today now, and had to move shit around several times just to get it accepted. https://guidetoiceland.is/natu... [guidetoiceland.is]

        Facts About the Midnight Sun in Iceland:
        1. The peak of Iceland's Midnight Sun is around the summer solstice, usually the 21st of June.
        2. From May to August, nighttime has daylight in Iceland, although

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          Is summer not "June, July, and August"? Astronomical twilight only comes back in the middle of the "night" around the middle of August, and by the end of August runs for about half the "night". Before that it's just nautical twilight (and for about two months, only civil twilight, where you can still do outdoor activities even though the sun is technically below the horizon). Yeah, September has actual night.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            I wasn't trying to argue with you, only adding. But now that you ask, Summer doesn't end until 22 Sept.

        • when the sun sets just before 1 AM on June 22.

        • I once flew to Anchorage to land shortly before midnight, and it took me quite a while to realize that the big mountain that the sun moved behind was indeed mount McKinley, which is way north from the airport,... Just that the sun was in the north close to midnight. To my defense for not getting it right away, I'd been on my feet for almost 30 hours flying out from Paris with a long stop over in Chicago.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rei ( 128717 )

            Yeah, and you can actually get multiple sunrises and sunsets in one day as it moves behind one mountain, out, behind the next, and so forth :)

      • When I visited, we would joke about being able to hike across Iceland by sunset. That would be sometime in September.

  • To live in a civilized country where the warning "Alert phase from the Civil Protection due to unrest on Reykjanes peninsula." doesn't mean some sort of terrorism or people violence.

  • Live Feed (Score:3)

    by juggledean ( 792527 ) on Saturday March 20, 2021 @02:17PM (#61179720) Homepage Journal
    With music. Relaxing, sort of like a campfire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

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