Unpronounceable Icelandic Volcano

[rain_gryphon]

You can watch the fissure volcano erupting in Iceland. It's formed a little spatter cone, and lava is bubbling up from the opening. Most of it splatters on the slopes, helping to build the cone, but every so often you get a huge surge that overflows and runs along the ground nearby. A very basaltic volcano, with lava coming up from way, seriously deep in the mantle, quite similar to those in Hawaii.

As I watch it for a while, the spatter/gush dichotomy seems much more variable than I initially thought. It goes into a long gushing sequence, which sets a river of fresh lava running from it. I envy the people who get to go and see this from close up.

And, a little parasitic crater breaks out on the flank of the cone. It doesn't seem to detract that much from the main crater.