Iceland braces for a volcanic eruption
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 633. Here at Plain English, we help you upgrade your English with stories about current events and trending topics. We try to pick a wide variety of topics, so you get exposure to as much English vocabulary as possible.
And the topic we have today is a good one: a pool of magma is accumulating under a town in Iceland, and there’s no telling when, where, or even if it will erupt onto the surface. But as a precaution, an entire town, representing one percent of Iceland’s population, that whole town has been evacuated.
In the second half of today’s lesson, I’ll show you how to use the English expression “up close” and we have a song of the week.
If you’d like to follow along with the transcript, you can do that at PlainEnglish.com/633. And while you’re there, check out the rest of the lesson resources—the video lesson and the exercises.
Now we’re ready. Let’s get going.
Magma under Iceland foreshadows volcanic activity
In Iceland, a small island nation in the North Atlantic, people are used to earthquakes. But what’s been happening lately is frightening even for Icelanders. In early November, seismic activity in the area increased at an alarming rate. In just a single day, Iceland experienced 900 earthquakes. And there were more the next day, and the day after that.
An earthquake can be caused by plates shifting beneath the surface. And Iceland sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: that’s where the North American and Eurasian plates intersect. Those two plates are gradually pulling apart, which is why there are so many earthquakes in this area.
But plate movement is not the only cause of earthquakes. Another potential cause is a buildup of magma. Magma is liquid rock—it’s liquid because it’s so hot, up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. And when a lot of magma builds up in one area, it can cause the surface of the earth to move.
And that is why the earth is shaking under Iceland this time.
Scientists have discovered a newly-formed 15-kilometer-long corridor of magma under the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland. The magma accumulation is between two and five kilometers underground. It starts under the Atlantic Ocean and extends inland, almost like a river. It’s about 50 kilometers from the capital, Reykjavik.
You might remember previous volcanic eruptions in Iceland in 2021 and 2022. Those happened in remote areas. After those eruptions, tourists and scientists got up close , taking photos and videos. There wasn’t much danger. Lava moves slowly, so as long as you stay away from an open vent, you can get right up close and watch it.
Iceland is full of lava fields—those are areas covered in rocks of cooled lava from eruptions centuries ago. So magma emerging from the earth is nothing new for Iceland.
But this is different. This magma pool is directly under a town, Grindavik. Aerial views of that town show what happened after the recent earthquakes. A long seam (like a crack in the earth) has opened up, zigzagging through parking lots, yards, streets, and parks. It’s a constant reminder that something is happening very close to the earth’s surface.
In fact , the surface itself is changing. The ground under the town has been rising 8 millimeters per day since the earthquakes started—a startling amount. It just feels like a bubble about to burst.
What might happen? Here are four possibilities.
First, the lava might flow to a nearby volcano and the volcano may erupt. This would be the classic scenario, what you picture when you think of a volcano. Lava could shoot out a vent at the top of a volcanic mountain and flow down the sides and into the surrounding areas.
The second possibility is that the river of magma could force its way up to the surface at any point along its path. This is harder to imagine. But remember that the earth’s upper crust is very thin in this area. A combination of magma and gas under the surface could increase the pressure, and the magma could push up, ever closer to the surface.
And if the pressure is great enough, the magma could force a path out into the open at any point along the corridor. That’s why the crack in the earth in Grindavik is so frightening: it’s a reminder that pressure could push magma up anywhere, not just through an existing vent.
The third possibility is that an eruption might occur in the ocean. And while that would spare humans from the molten rock, it presents other problems. When magma erupts under water, the liquid rock turns to ash—a cloud of airborne particles. That can contaminate the air, it can get in the water supply, and it can disrupt aviation. It can stay in the atmosphere for weeks.
And the fourth possibility is…nothing. It could end peacefully. The seismic activity could slow down. The magma that has been forced close to the surface could cool down and just become part of the upper crust. Life could go back to normal.
But there is no way to know which of these possibilities will happen—or when. As a precaution, Iceland has evacuated Grindavik. All 3,800 residents have left the town. It has been empty for almost a month now. Residents were allowed back into their homes for just five minutes each to grab essential items. Some say they’re too afraid to go back. Others are just waiting to see if they’ll have homes after this settles down .
Even if this particular event ends peacefully, this could be the new normal for Iceland. A volcanic system in this area had been dormant for centuries. But geologists think the system goes in cycles, with decades of activity, followed by centuries of inactivity. The first sign of activity was just a few years ago—so this type of scare could recur frequently in the future.
The Blue Lagoon is closed. This is the famous spa, not too far from the Reykjavik airport. It’s probably the most famous attraction in Iceland, just because it’s so close to the capital. They closed it as a precaution. It’s not directly over the magma pool, but it’s too close for comfort.
Iceland is a popular destination for U.S. travelers going to Europe. Iceland Air offers flights from major American cities to mainland Europe with a stopover in Iceland for a night or two. That’s how a lot of people see the country.
It’s a small country, just 372,000 people in total. So that town, Grindavik, it’s just 3,800 people, it’s tiny. But it’s also one percent of the country’s population—not a small number in percentage terms.
JR’s song of the week
All right, we’ve got a song of the week for you. It’s “Pickup Man” by HARDY, a country music singer. Now this is a classic 90s country song. It was first released by Joe Diffie, a popular country singer who died in 2020. The new version uses Joe Diffie studio recordings and mixes in contemporary singers. So it sounds like the late Joe Diffie is singing with Post Malone. And they are both singing on the track you hear—but they were never in the studio together. In case you’re wondering, they did this with the permission of Joe Diffie’s family.
One line from the song goes like this: “There’s something women like about a pickup man,” or a man who drives a pickup truck.
So the song is “Pickup Man” by HARDY, featuring Joe Diffie and Post Malone.
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