Iceland Uses Dirt to Keep Towns Safe From Volcanic Lava

When the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland started to erupt in 2021, mavens banded in combination to create defensive limitations with dust to offer protection to civilians within the surrounding spaces. 

Crews from the Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management labored across the clock to construct limitations to curtail the lava glide. A box find out about, led through Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Professor Fjola Gudrun Sigtryggsdottir, analyzed how efficient those prevention strategies had been and in the event that they might be used someday. 

“The main lesson we learned from that field experiment was that it is possible to control lava flows – to some extent. And it is certainly worth trying when it comes to protecting civil society and critical infrastructure,” mentioned Sigtryggsdottir in a press free up. 

A Field Study on an Active Volcano 

The Fagradalsfjall volcano hadn’t erupted in nearly 800 years. However, that every one just lately modified because the volcano started appearing indicators of seismic task, and ultimately erupted in March of 2021. 

To give protection to civilian existence and the infrastructure, development crews used bulldozers and excavators to construct earthen limitations and rock dams. During this time, Sigtryggsdottir’s performed a box find out about to measure the barrier’s effectiveness. 

According to the find out about, revealed in Bulletin of Volcanology, all over an eruption that can have an effect on civilian existence, delaying lava glide and protecting time is without equal function. In this example, the find out about discovered the crews not on time the lava glide for 16 days. The limitations and dams additionally diverted the lava glide in opposition to a protected path. 

Read More: How to Stay Safe Before, During, and After a Volcano Eruption

Building Volcanic Protection 

Before the eruption passed off, the Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (DCPEM) used to be already discussing mitigation plans. Before the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted, the world used to be already experiencing seismic task, together with 40,000 earthquakes. 

Officials from the DCPEM, in conjunction with Sigtryggsdottir, researchers from the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Meteorological Office, and engineers from Verkis and Efla consulting corporations, mapped out spaces that lava flows may just have an effect on and brainstormed coverage find out how to stay the area protected. 

The volcano persevered to erupt for a number of months, however slowed in September 2021. From there, researchers examined other strategies, together with transient as opposed to long-term measures.

In general, the crews built 3 embankment dams made from dust and stone, the easiest of which used to be about 26 ft tall. The group additionally constructed two 1100-foot-long limitations that helped divert the lava glide in a special path.   

Protecting the Future

The knowledge received from this box find out about would end up helpful because the volcano started to erupt once more on the finish of 2023. Officials, the usage of a information put in combination through Sigtryggsdottir, put right kind protections in position and safe Grindavík in conjunction with a geothermal energy plant out of doors of the city. 

Without those protections, lava can have impacted the city. 

“If the barriers had not been built, several of the houses there would now be under lava,” Sigtryggsdottir mentioned in a press free up.

However, the panorama across the volcano continues to switch. Recently, a brand new fissure has opened close to Grindavík. Though the eruption didn’t closing lengthy, not anything used to be destroyed. In the period in-between, tracking remains to be happening as issues shift, however there at the moment are higher protection measures in position. 

“Although there’s a lot of uncertainty regarding the development of the eruption itself, it is fully possible to delay and divert lava flows. There are many challenges, but civil society and infrastructure can be protected, and when we can, we must seize the opportunity and believe it will work,” Sigtryggsdottir mentioned in a press free up.

Read More: Volcanic Eruption Warnings Are Now Possible With Fiber-Optic Cables

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A graduate of UW-Whitewater, Monica Cull wrote for a number of organizations, together with one who considering bees and the wildlife, sooner than coming to Discover Magazine. Her present paintings additionally seems on her trip weblog and Common State Magazine. Her love of science got here from looking at PBS displays as a child along with her mother and spending an excessive amount of time binging Doctor Who.