Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Grindavik [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 83 posts

Re: Grindavik [video]

#41

Post by gpm »

senectus1 wrote: post #38
greggsy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starts at around 22:55 for fifteen or so minutes. Pretty terrifying, but they seem to have it all under control. It’s difficult to get any sense of scale, but there’s some good panning shots where you see how close the power station is.

> but they seem to have it all under control. they have the people under control... there is no way they have any semblance of controls over the fissure or the magma/lava.

They have a very slight semblance of control over the lava, in the sense that they have built some berms in an attempt to protect important infrastructure (power plant and town) should the lava flow towards it.

But ya, mostly they have the people evacuated and taken care of.

Re: Grindavik [video]

#42

Post by netfortius »

somenameforme wrote: post #33
Kye wrote: post #12

Multi-cam view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=804nPrAUAxg

It's so interesting to see things like this and imagine what peoples of times past would have thought about when first discovering such sights and sites! Or even imagine yourself seeing this thousands of years past with no idea of what or why it was happening.

So funny you should mention this! I am almost finished re-reading one of my childhood favorite comics, Rahan [1] , where authors imagined live in prehistoric times, and where almost one third of the albums bring up the topic, one way or another, attempting to imagine what kind of feelings and beliefs such events induced.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahan_(comics)

Re: Grindavik [video]

#43

Post by hax0ron3 »

This eruption has caused me to re-read Pliny the Younger's words on the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD: http://www.pompeii.org.uk/s.php/tour-the-two-letters-written....

Words that are worthy of reading both for their extremely vivid and personal description of something that, from our vantage point, happened a very long time ago, and for their eloquence.

Re: Grindavik [video]

#47

Post by mr_toad »

voisin wrote: post #25

Is it normal for there to be such a long (4km!) fissure with lava erupting? I always was under the impression a pit formed and then filled with lava which would then overflow out the sides, rather than a long rip in the earth like this.

Iceland sits on top of the Mid Atlantic Ridge where the continental plates are being pushed apart. More common volcanoes are associated with subduction zones where plates collide.

Re: Grindavik [video]

#48

Post by senectus1 »

gpm wrote: post #41
senectus1 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but they seem to have it all under control. they have the people under control... there is no way they have any semblance of controls over the fissure or the magma/lava.

They have a very slight semblance of control over the lava, in the sense that they have built some berms in an attempt to protect important infrastructure (power plant and town) should the lava flow towards it. But ya, mostly they have the people evacuated and taken care of.

I suspect it's too early to suggest the berms are protecting anything. They're just delaying.

having said that, the Icelandic Dyke seems to have very "runny" magma. this might help with deflection.

Re: Grindavik [video]

#49

Post by parentheses »

somenameforme wrote: post #33
Kye wrote: post #12

Multi-cam view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=804nPrAUAxg

It's so interesting to see things like this and imagine what peoples of times past would have thought about when first discovering such sights and sites! Or even imagine yourself seeing this thousands of years past with no idea of what or why it was happening.

There is a Doctor Who episode where they went to Pompeii.

Re: Grindavik [video]

#50

Post by runarberg »

somenameforme wrote: post #33
Kye wrote: post #12

Multi-cam view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=804nPrAUAxg

It's so interesting to see things like this and imagine what peoples of times past would have thought about when first discovering such sights and sites! Or even imagine yourself seeing this thousands of years past with no idea of what or why it was happening.

No need to guess. There is almost a thousand year old story in Iceland which describes such a thing in Brennunjálssaga. The story goes something along the lines that they were discussing whether to adopt Christianity at the Parliament. but as they were debating somebody told them that a new eruption had started. Some assembly members wanted to blame this on the debate, that the gods were insulted that they were considering being abandoned, however others argued: “Then what angered the gods that produced the lave which we stand on now?”

In short, people kind of knew what was going on. They may not have known the exact mechanism, but they did know that this was how land formed, and was a normal part of nature, just like the northern lights, earthquakes and rain.

Post reply on HN