Could you send me info on the volcanoe called Surtsey?
Mithas
Hi Mithas,
I can tell you a little bit but it would probably be better for you to
look up a few volcano books. Surtsey is featured in a number of them
because it popped to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and was able to be
studied pretty closely almost from the first moments.
Prior to the eruption that location was known to be shallow so it wasn't a
huge surprise; the shallow water was actually the summit of an undersea
volcano that wasn't quite at the surface yet. The first eruptions were
very explosive because of the mixture of hot lava and ocean water, and
even after the island built above sea level, water was still able to seep
through the ash to make more explosions. Eventually, however, the vent
got sealed off from the ocean and the eruptions became non-explosive
Hawaiian-style lava fountains instead of steam explosions. In fact,
explosive water-lava eruptions are now called "Surtseyan" after Surtsey.
A number of times water would suddenly gain access to the vent and
instantly the activity would go from quiet Hawaiian-style fountaining to
explosive Surtseyan explosions. This created quite a hazard to those
studying the volcano.
There is a book called:
Surtsey, The New Island i the North Atlantic, by S. Thorarinsson,
published by Viking Press of New York.
Additionally, according to the answer to a similar question to
ask-a-volcanologist, there is a section on Surtsey in Volcanoes of the
Earth by Fred Bullard (1976).
These are probably good places to start searching. There is also a good
film about Surtsey that is often shown in intro-geology classes. I'm
afraid I don't know what it is called.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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