Those Iceland Volcano Eruptions
Volcanoes bring to mind the big, conical mountains that explode, shooting boulders into the air and molten rocks flowing down the sides. In 70 AD, Mt. Vesuvius erupted so violently, inhabitants of Pompeii were buried in place by volcanic ash. There have been other dramatic eruptions throughout history.
The Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980 was actually small in comparison, and although it is likely to erupt again, that will be even smaller. Scientific advances give us some warning before an eruption.
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| Fagradalsfjall volcano image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Mokslo Sriuba (CC BY-SA 4.0) |
Kīlauea in Hawai'i is almost constantly erupting. Well, oozing lava. Iceland is a very active volcanic region, and the Fagradalsfjall got a bit of attention with its long-term eruption. It had been dormant for a long time, but earthquakes and such signaled that something was up. The danger was so intense, people could walk away — unless they hung around to roast marshmallows, cook bacon and so on. Bad idea, since there are poisonous gasses to contend with as well as the lava.
Fagradalsfjall was no firecracker, taking just under half a year to settle down after several phases in its eruption cycle. This and other Icelandic volcanoes account for a third of the lava dispersed in the world! Yep, lots of volcanoes doing what they do, and doing it well.
On a side note, hot and cold affect weather and air currents. Dr. Danny Faulkner explained how fog is made and how he was able to see a river of fog. Going the other way, extreme temperatures in and around volcanoes cause the air to be unstable, and there are vortices (mini tornadoes) in some instances. It's not surprising when a drone crashes in the lava.
The history of these Icelandic volcanoes helps illustrate what was happening during and after the catastrophic Genesis Flood. There was a great deal of extreme volcanism, and volcanoes transform the land areas quite rapidly.The island of Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is where the Eurasian and North American plates are moving apart along a divergent plate boundary. One explanation is that Iceland sits above a geological hot spot. This is co-located along the Greenland-Scotland Transverse Ridge, although not all scientists believe such a hot spot exists. In Iceland, the mid-Atlantic ridge lies above sea level, and is identifiable by rift valleys in places. The island largely consists of igneous flood basalt rock, which implies that enormous volumes of lava were released rapidly, on land and under water. Secular geologists have assigned Iceland a relatively young ‘age’ at 16–18 Ma. . . Iceland began to form during the tail end of the Noahic Flood, and continued to grow in the post-Flood Ice Age, followed by a subsequent gradual decrease in volcanic and tectonic activity.
You can read the entire article by clicking on "The Fagradalsfjall–Geldingadalir eruption of 2021, and other Icelandic volcanoes." After this post was completed, I realized I need to expand it. Please come back for one more discussion.
Howdy again, thanks for returning. Let's travel east. Way east, over yonder to the Philippines. Mt. Pinatubo played possum for 500 years, then the sneaky thing blew its stack in 1991. This was a big deal, with tephra (rock fragments shot into the air, including fine ash), pyroclastic flows (lava, pumice, gasses and so forth), and lahars (mudflow mix with all sorts of dangerous stuff). Volcanic eruptions are downright messy.
Anyway, the loss of life could have been staggering, but scientists sounded the warning, then the Philippine government and US military saved thousands of people. The effects were global, and further illustrate the massive effects of global volcanism during the Genesis Flood.
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| Mt. Pinatubo erupting, 12 June 1991, USGS / Dave Harlow via Wikimedia Commons |
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo on Luzon Island in the Philippines on 15 June 1991, the second largest eruption in the twentieth century, provides evidence of catastrophic processes that have shaped the land over millennia. It also exemplifies processes that were ongoing during Noah’s Flood and in the immediate post-Flood period.
To read the rest (and learn some new lingo) at "The Pinatubo eruption—catastrophic pyroclastic flows and lahars." It's a bit on the technical side, but well worth the read. Another addition before this was published: Mt. Semeru in Indonesia erupted on 4 December 2021.