An eruption started between Sýlingarfell and Hagafell at 10pm. An earthquake swarm started in the magma intrusion north of Grindavík around one hour earlier.There is a risk of lava flowing to Grindavík, says Kristín Jónsdóttir of the Icelandic Met Office.The worst possible location, say Þorvaldur Þórðarson and Benedikt Ófeigsson.Civil Defence emergency level declared.The fissure is still getting longer and has grown to about 3.5 kilometres.The flow of lava in the eruption is many times higher than the eruptions of recent years on the Reykjanes Peninsula.The police chief in Suðurnes says that no one should be in danger.Reykjanesbraut has been closed and people are asked to evacuate it.
It’s all about how much silica is in the lava - not much and you have basalt, fairly runny so the gas escapes and you get fire fountaining and lava flows. More silica gives you very viscous lava like rhyolite or andesite - traps the gases, far more explosive and dangerous eruption styles.
You are right
…and my use of “plutonic” is either outdated or plainly wrong.
I found this for anyone who wants to read more : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava
“Properties of lava”
Because of the role of silica in determining viscosity and because many other properties of a lava (such as its temperature) are observed to correlate with silica content, silicate lavas are divided into four chemical types based on silica content: felsic, intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic.
It’s all about how much silica is in the lava - not much and you have basalt, fairly runny so the gas escapes and you get fire fountaining and lava flows. More silica gives you very viscous lava like rhyolite or andesite - traps the gases, far more explosive and dangerous eruption styles.
You are right
…and my use of “plutonic” is either outdated or plainly wrong.
I found this for anyone who wants to read more :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava
“Properties of lava”