AFP

Curious onlookers made their way Thursday to the site of a volcano erupting near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik to marvel at the bubbling lava, a day after the fissure appeared in an uninhabited valley.

The eruption was around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Reykjavik, near the site of the Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwestern Iceland that spewed magma for six months between March and September 2021.

While last year’s eruption was easily accessible on foot and drew more than 435,000 tourists, the new eruption is trickier to access, requiring a strenuous 90-minute hilly hike from the closest car park. 

Despite that, more than 1,830 people visited the site on the first day of the eruption, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board, and more visitors were seen trekking to the scene early Thursday.

The fissure was estimated to be around 360 metres (1,181 feet) long, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Thursday, with lava fountains about 10-15 metres high.

The average lava flow in the first hours was estimated at 32 cubic metres per second, according to measurements done Wednesday at 1705 GMT — 3.5 hours after the eruption began — by scientists from the Institute of Earth Sciences.

That is about four or five times more than at the beginning of last year’s eruption.

“The current eruption is therefore much more powerful,” the Institute wrote in a Facebook post.

The lava covered an area of about 74,000 square metres, it said. 

By comparison, last year’s six-month eruption saw 150 million cubic metres of lava spilled over 4.85 square kilometres.

Officials had initially urged people to refrain from visiting the site until a danger assessment had been conducted.

But on Thursday, the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said only that young children should not walk up to the eruption site.

Gases from a volcanic eruption — especially sulphur dioxide — can be elevated in the immediate vicinity, may pose a danger to health and even be fatal.

Gas pollution can also be carried by the wind.

Mount Fagradalsfjall belongs to the Krysuvik volcanic system on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland.

Known as the land of fire and ice, Iceland has 32 volcanic systems currently considered active, the highest number in Europe. The country has had an eruption every five years on average.

A Beluga whale, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, has been seen in France’s Seine river, with authorities urging people to keep their distance to avoid distressing the animal.

Officials in the Eure department of Normandy said late Wednesday that images suggested it was a beluga separated from its pod, though they did not specify its size nor where exactly it was seen.

An adult beluga can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length, and while they migrate away from the Arctic in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far south.

“Studies of its health are underway to determine the best measures to take to ensure its chances of survival,” the Eure regional authorities said.

In May, a killer whale — technically part of the dolphin family — was found dead in the Seine between the port city of Le Havre and Rouen.

The animal had been stranded in the river, which flows through Paris to the Channel, and was unable to find its way back to the ocean despite attempts by officials to guide it.

The Eure authorities said lone belugas do sometimes swim farther south than usual, and are able to temporarily survive in fresh water.

In a wave tank at a robot laboratory in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, engineers observe in silence as an underwater drone rises stealthily to the surface.

The team, which led the development of the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at Heriot-Watt university, believe the submersible machine is a game-changer for offshore wind farms, obviating the need for divers.

The engineers reckon it will soon be ready to perform inspections and maintenance at wind farms, transforming the nature of the high-risk and costly endeavours just as the industry is set for huge expansion.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to make the UK the “Saudi Arabia” of wind power, with plans to generate enough electricity from offshore to power every UK home by 2030.

While Johnson is on his way out of office, the industry is banking on the expansion plans, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the price of traditional carbon energy through the roof.

“We have to imagine that in 10, 15 years time there will be hundreds of wind farms, which means thousands of wind turbines all across the coast of the UK,” Yvan Petillot, a robotics and autonomous systems professor at Heriot-Watt, told AFP.

“You also have hydrogen technology being developed and all of this will need to be maintained, inspected and serviced.

“What we are developing is remote technologies where people can inspect and maintain those assets from shore, without putting anyone in harm’s way.”

– Accumulation of micro-organisms –

In May the ROV, which is equipped with sensors and advanced software, conducted what is believed to be the first ever autonomous offshore wind farm inspection.

The device was deployed at French energy firm EDF’s Blyth wind farm, off the coast of Northumberland, northeast England.

It successfully recorded videos that allowed researchers to assess the exterior condition of turbine foundations and cables.

Meanwhile its software created a 3D reconstruction model of parts of the energy company’s underwater assets.

Petillot said the 3D model can pick up the accumulation of micro-organisms, plants and algae on the turbine foundations. 

If a problem is detected, the ROV system can be deployed with a robotic arm to conduct a repair.

“The system will first do an autonomous inspection of the seabed and the structure, and build the 3D model that someone from shore can look at and say, ‘there’s a problem here’,” Petillot said.

“Typically you would have corrosion on the system, you might have to turn a valve, you might have to connect a cable, you might have to change an anode and clean the surface if there is too much bio-fouling.”

Maxime Duchet, an offshore wind research engineer at EDF, said the images and modelling will greatly enhance the ability to conduct operations and maintenance activities on-site.

– ‘Safer and faster’ –

Further tests are needed to estimate the time required to inspect all of the turbine foundations and to demonstrate the full potential of marine robotic technology, he noted.

“However, it is clear from these initial results that the technology can ensure safer and faster operations and a reduced carbon footprint,” Duchet added.

Engineers, who use a joystick to pilot the vehicle, say the ROV can be left alone to perform its primary mapping task for most of the time. 

If it becomes stuck, or lingers too long in a particular area, a pilot can commandeer it. 

Petillot said a long-term benefit could be allowing more people to join the team managing the ROV remotely, who might not have been willing or able to work offshore.

It is incredibly difficult to find a diver or a qualified pilot for such projects, he noted. 

In contrast, finding somebody to help control the system as though they were playing a video game should prove far easier, according to Petillot.

Parts of Australia’s beleaguered Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover seen in decades, a government report said Thursday, suggesting the aquatic wonder could survive given the chance.

Portions of the vast UNESCO heritage site showed a marked increase in coral cover in the last year, reaching levels not seen in 36 years of monitoring, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. 

Scientists surveying 87 sites said northern and central parts of the reef had bounced back from damage more quickly than some had expected, thanks mainly to fast-growing Acropora — a branching coral that supports thousands of marine species. 

“These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover in periods free of intense disturbances,” said the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s CEO Paul Hardisty.

But far from declaring victory, Hardisty warned the gains could easily be reversed by cyclones, new bleaching events or crown-of-thorns outbreaks. 

He pointed to a reversal in fortunes for the southern portion of the reef, which a year ago had appeared to be on the mend, but was now in decline again.

“This shows how vulnerable the reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer-lasting,” he said.

Coral coverage has increased by 36 percent across sites monitored in the northern part of the reef, up from 27 percent in 2021. 

But the picture was less encouraging as the scientists moved south, with a smaller increase in cover in the reef’s central belt and a marked decrease in coral cover in the south.

The spread of coral-killing crown-of-thorns starfish has also taken a toll.

Only fierce lobbying by the Australian government stopped the reef from being labelled “in danger” by UNESCO — a potentially devastating blow to the country’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry. 

Many fear that the speeding rate of damage could cause the reef to be destroyed entirely. 

Marine scientist Terry Hughes said it was “good news” that coral was regrowing, but warned the species driving the recovery were very vulnerable to ocean heating.

He added that replacing large, old, slow-growing corals that had defined the reef was likely “no longer possible. Instead we’re seeing partial reassembly of fast-growing, weedy corals before the next disturbance.”

Zoe Richards a researcher at the Coral Conservation and Research Group at Curtin University also cautioned against over-optimism.

“This recovery trend is driven by a handful of Acropora species which often grow in a boom-and-bust pattern,” she said. “This means that the next thermal stress event could easily decimate these coral communities once again.”

“We are already finding evidence that each mass bleaching event leads to local extinctions of rarer species, so the short-term success of a handful of fast-growing coral species masks the full story about the largely hidden losses of biodiversity.”

Bridges collapsed and rivers burst their banks as heavy rain lashed northern Japan on Thursday, with 200,000 residents urged to evacuate as authorities warned of dangerous flooding.

TV footage showed a muddy mass of broken trees swept into a mountainous residential area by the downpours, which broke records in some areas.

Two people have been reported missing, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

Authorities have warned of an increased risk of landslides and floods.

Public broadcaster NHK said non-compulsory evacuation advisories were issued to 200,000 residents in five regions: Niigata, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ishikawa and Fukui.

Other TV footage showed homes flooded by an overflowing river and another muddy waterway reaching the height of a bridge.

Some shinkansen bullet trains were suspended in the affected areas.

Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

Strong rain in 2021 triggered a devastating landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed 27 people.

And in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.