Volcano Surtsey (1966)

[Music] e [Music] fore [Music] fore for [Music] hidden by oceans a crack is opened across the Earth it scores the line of a submarine Ridge around the world it is not mending the fracture is kept active by the upthrust of matter from within the Earth the ultimate danger is unguessable its immediate threat is the earthquake and volcanic activity which escapes out of that Rift the part of it along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge has given vent to four outbursts in a decade in the azors in 1957 trand Duna in 1961 and in the same year in Iceland Asia came up like a boil Central fissure is out of water and visibly dividing Iceland indeed Iceland is slowly falling apart along the rift invisibly the rift continues under the ocean to the north and to the South the islands off the south coast of Iceland are cold dead volcanoes here Islands have boiled up and inevitably subsided again Beneath the Sea before they could be named unless they produced enough lava to resist the sea the small islands are the rockline throats of what were smoking pipes from the erupting crack only one large island was able to grow resist continue because as it Formed it Advanced into the sea a Breakwater of hard cooling lava Behind These stone walls the island was Secure and hospitable these walls were built by an up thrust to the cracked earth when Mount helgafell coughed up enough lava to create an island of 6 square miles which has lasted 6,000 years healthy Hardy as they seem the people of the island are different the life they lead is different in the background is always the reminder the threat of what surges beneath them so they build their houses of concrete and wait quietly but not in ignorance of that background even fishermen know the beneath their familiar element of water a fire is burning and they were fishermen in a small boat laying liines in sight of Mount helgafell who were the first to recognize the new volcano on November 14th 1963 the bubbling crack in the earth opened for the fourth time in a decade the eruption Cloud had already reached a height of 10,000 ft when observations measurements records were begun by geologists the first morning the eruptions which varied and number during the day were issuing along a lengthening fissure it was a submarine volcano an explosion caused by the intrusion of cold seawater into the hot narrow crack Steam and tea burst out the ocean at that point was 425 ft deep the Fisher grew until it was an unbroken 600 ydd along the entire length of it the eruption issued 14 miles away the threat to the Islanders Rose from the possible contamination of rainwater the threat for the fishermen in the spoiling of the Sea by Heat and the deposit of te the next day and the days following the te deposit accumulated rapidly a steady wind from the north all through November caused the porest deposit to be laid on the Lee of the new island while the sea beat it away on the Windwood and forged a horseshoe [Applause] the sea continue to pour into the single vent the violence of a wet explosion is due to the propellent power of steam and tefra is formed when lava and water meet fluid magma being suddenly [Applause] particularized deep explosions shot up vertically sometimes to 500 yard [Applause] shallow explosions occurring in the wide muzzle of the vent were aimless and formed Cox tail columns white and black separate in midair as the plumes of steam and the heavier ash fall at their different ratees [Applause] interest in the phenomenon from the United States was due to Professor Paul B of American University many interests converged on the volcano volcanic lightning is of mild interest to geologists so are tornadoes formed by the volcanic heat for meteorologists these are excellent conditions in which to examine the behavior of a Troublesome occurrence throughout the world the Fallout of tea which accompanies them is a phenomenon of interest to chemists among others and a rare chance a boat had only to sail down wind to collect on her deck samples of the substance which constitutes the Earth's crust that it washed away easily was a reminder that the island too could be washed away just as easily would it last long enough for study was everyone's concern one vent had closed another had opened despite it height of over 500 ft the island was impermanent and kept losing ground to wind and water but in 4 months the volcano produced over 500 million cubic yards of tea and the lightweight Island grew fire was first observed in February the uprush of tea from a vented sea level blocked the sea from a higher in the same fure the affusion from the dry vent was for the first time a fountain of viscous [Applause] fire bombs as big as cars sometimes steam propelled and burning kept observers at a distance [Applause] sh energy was being released at the rate of 10 to the 18th ergs per second enough energy to illuminate a city 10 times the size of New York if these were lava fountains the island might last the fire died after five days and five nights next trip was somewhat more memorable it was on February 19th we wanted to go out some scientists and some journalists to have a closer look at the island examples and so on I had been in a reconing plane over the island the day before and then there was a bridge in the crater wall and the Sea flooded the crater under those circumstances it usually kept quiet and I decided that there was no real danger in going aore went from the wman islands in a small fishing vessel for Professor Sig tharon an Icelandic vulcanologist three months of observations from a distance had been frustrating Professor thon's first observations have been on the volcano's first day he was hopeful of collecting Rock samples from the island [Applause] the February sea was heavy and far more than the volcano caused an anxiety the life belts proved wise but unnecessary though one dingy caps size as it beat but the party could be seen from the boat and shortly they reported all hand safe oh [Applause] the tea Cloud obscured The Landing party and silenced their remaining contact whatever had happened to the party no rescue could have been attempted [Applause] [Applause] I remember one of the girls making the remark that there are no overwhelming odds against and some of these bombs hitting your head and I guess that was true he had not been unsure more than few minutes when the big crater fired some warning shots and uh we heard the bombs falling out in the sea outside the island and then they started to crash down all around us fishing messel had to go away because of the bomb F in the sea we were seven on Shore five men and two girls and under those circumstances you have to try to overcome instinctive to take to your heels but the only correct thing to do is just to stand still and steer skywalls and not jump aside until just the bomb is going you feel that the bomb is just going to land on your head then you jump aside and then came Showers of Ash in between so it was completely dark it was lukewarm though there was some lack of oxygen in these clouds but the wind was fortunately strong so they blew away very fast so you could breathe again this went on nearly nearly an hour as showers and then bomb fall then as showers again [Music] the Breakwater against the sea was formed in April the future of the island was certain it would be secure and hospitable it would have a place on maps of the world it would have a name c would be called the island of sortur the fire Giant separated from the sea sortra became an effusive volcano [Applause] in North mythology after s's fire destroyed all Earth and Heaven the world was born a new all evil perished that from the ruin goodness might rise again we had uh later on to go down into the into the Creator itself and uh this was at time rather hazardous uh because of uh of the splicing of the hot lava had several Burns uh was nothing nothing serious but uh the worst thing was that uh the gases were so aggressive both to your eyes and especially to lungs that uh working down there was was rather unpleasant of course there were three people uh sampling gases down there in the crater for about about uh four hours 3 or 4 hours and they were suffering for 2 days afterwards from vomiting and headaches because of the poisonous gases it was on one of these trips that uh we went into the cradle and I had to put myag I put it on the on the on the on the lava it was okay to stand on it on G rubber boots but uh I was looking at the fire and didn't notice my backs but then when I turned around and saw it it was a flame then a little later on that same trip uh my cap caught fire also from a little piece of lava which got CAU in it as we were sampling Professor gmunder sigvald analyzed the chemical composition of the lava it was the same as the earlier tea an Olivine basso the highest measured temperature was 130° C what might the temperatures be inside the Earth the lava Dome increased in height continuously as the lake splashed cooled hardened the development of a shield volcano or Hawaiian type had never been witnessed the Lava Lake Rose inside the growing Dome the surface had reached as high as 365 ft by July when the lake level Rose it could be watched vigorously brimming over in rivers of flowing Rock at 45 mph the lava flows faster than a man can run the sething rivers frequently enter tunnels the molten rock splashes the sides of the channels clings cools and slowly covers itself over but the course is still visible from above a shell of hardened lava is spread over the island and through porest tea are everywhere tough veins of bubbling Rock the composition of these gases are quite interesting uh the main constituents of the of the gases are hydrogen and sulfur dioxide with uh with carbon dioxide some carbon monoxide and and water water amounts to about 80% of of the whole gas mixture this composition is uh quite similar to uh gas compositions of the of the havian volcanoes in hot Torrance all the streams urged up by the central vent move to North South East and West pulled down by their own weight [Applause] pseudo eruptions occur when lava meets the sea tefra sand piles up at the lava Edge as the island irresistibly expands outward into the sea [Applause] lava congeals rapidly when it hits cold water Cinder forms which the sea breaks down into black sand more lava covers the sand and the shore is persistently extended beneath clouds of steam [Applause] [Applause] how much lava was poured into the sea is unmeasured but the area of the island by the end of August was a Mile Square an area traced and retraced traced as its size was [Applause] [Applause] taken visitors to C had soon to be restricted curiosity was a sufficient passport but it had to be curiosity with a purpose those who qualified were curious about many things for no one had ever seen anything like C before and some like Professor tharon had seen it all happen one of the more remarkable things when you come on this island how fast the geological processes work there we are accustomed to this in Iceland though because everything in Iceland from geological point of view goes very fast Iceland was built up in a very short time and both the building up forces and the forces that break down they work at very great speed in Iceland but in C they work at still great speed things that happen here in say 100 years they may happen there in one few days the lava flow down into the sea and then you have a sentle slope when the lava goes down into the sea after a few weeks you may have vertical Cliffs tens many tens of feet high and in front of them you have a s Shure and around the the Pebbles and blocks just so arounded that you would guess that they were thousands of years old just to know that they are only few [Applause] weeks the Desert Shores then showed something more wondrous than a human footprint there was death on C's Island and where there was death there was the fertile promise of new life and where there is life and death there is man to be curious and hopeful and the observation measurements and Records began [Music] [Applause] [Music] again foreign [Music]