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Finally got them potholes filled.
that’s iceland. they don’t have potholes, because none of their streets get very old, see exhibit A
Boss, you’ll never guess why I can’t make it today.
A bunch of my co-workers are situated in Iceland and, you joke, but they have had to leave the office twice because of risk of lava in about a year.
Which seems like a startlingly high number
“Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice”
What do you even do if your office gets burned and melted by a volcano? Do you take a week “off” and all meet up in a new space? Do you look for a new job? Like damn, if the warehouse I work in burned down I’d be completely out of a job unless I can move 1,000 miles away.
Wow, do you live in the middle of a desert? I would try to move anyway if that’s the real situation.
America; jobs will relo to the next warehouse and since #america, everyone will have to report there for even office work or be laid-off.
Tell me if I didn’t make it cruel enough to be America yet.
You forgot to mention no relocation assistance and no adjustment to wages to make up for the hurdles and potential cost of living increase in the new location.
And if you take a hit to performance (you will) you might get fired! And then all that was for nothing.
Honestly I think if that happened to me I’d fire the building. From existence.
Probably what happened to the previous warehouse lol
Well when you live on a volcanic island… it shouldn’t be that surprising that it occasionally does volcano things
I like how calmly Icelandic civilians and government workers seem to be coping. I know there are only about 300,000 of them, but they get repeated emergency advisories out faster than one warning would get out in, for example, Oklahoma USA. Anybody who wants to be near Hot Flowy Death right now WANTS to be near it. Source: every time the good citizens of a county in Oklahoma are warned about a (water mixed with trees) flood, there’s always THAT GUY who says the county didn’t do enough to warn HIM and that’s why XYZ happened.
In Iceland it’s a commonly accepted reason to stay home. Volcano-leave, we call it.
Do you guys have a 16 letter word for it that sounds like a Klingon trying to speak French?
Yes, Hraunflæðisorlof
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+translate+Hraunflæðis+Orlof and it does sound like expected
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The more languages you learn the more our monkey sounds seem the same.
Cool, a close second place to my favourite of being bitten by a scorpion
Which makes me wonder - getting stung by a scorpion makes more sense than getting bitten?
(From that same list, my favorite was “brewing beer.”)
Mother nature is scary AF
Do you dig it out or just go over top with new road it’s gotta be pretty effed up underneath all that, before chiseling through it and clearing it off, and where do you go with the slag if you do dig it out? Do you treat it like snow?
Bro that’s the new Iceland, anything underneath has been Pompeii’d
This is worse than Pompeii. The ancient Roman city wasn’t buried under lava, but under ash, rock and boulders. While that is still very deadly, it isn’t nearly as destructive as lava. That’s why we can still experience Pompeii architecture, art and culture. Excavating this road, covered in solidified lava, is extremely difficult and costly. Just go over it, once it’s cooled.
‘cool’ is relative - the have to water the roads they build over the top to stop them melting!
Missed opportunity. We could have messed with the future.
They did that in Hawaii decades ago when Kīlauea covered Chain of Craters road and others.
Kīlauea said “Fuck that” and covered the roads again and again, along with entire neighborhoods. The Hawaiians just let it all go back to nature now. You can drive roughly 10 miles of Chain of Craters Road now, which is in Volcanoes National Park, until it ends very much like the road in this picture.
Speaking of Kīlauea, you might be interested in reading about Jacks Lava House which survived for years as the entire neighborhood around it was reclaimed by the volcano. It was eventually reclaimed by Kīlauea as well about a decade ago.
I was feeling really bad for the guy thinking he was now homeless, because there would’ve been no way to sell the home prior being in the location it was, until I read the last lines of him living at his second home while he figures out what to do. Oh gee, I don’t know. How about, live in your spare home? For fucks sake “figuring out what to do”. Collect any reimbursement and move on in your extra house as if nothing happened. Rich motherfucker. There are few enough houses available in Hawaii without someone taking up multiple. No wonder Hawaiians are sick of haoli.
My rants aside though neat links! Thanks for posting them!
There are few enough houses available in Hawaii without someone taking up multiple.
And Mark Fuckerberg has purchased like half of one of the entire islands.
I’ve yet to hear anything about him that I liked. Soulless robot.
My understanding is that the lava house became an attraction more than a personal home. Folks would hike in there to stay a few days, B&B style, to get married there, etc.
Just paint a yellow line and call it a day.
On that note of a million questions, the soil looks pretty soily; How long would it take that new lava rock to become as soily on top?
I looked it up and unsurprisingly there’s a whole Wikipedia page about this. Long story short, it takes decades for rock to become soily at all so likely a much longer time till it becomes as soily as what’s around it here.
till it
You can’t till it 'til much later.
Did I use the wrong word there? I always assumed till and until were synonyms
You’re good, it was just a funny
Till has been in use in English since the 9th century; the earliest sense of the word was the same as the preposition to. It has been used as a conjunction meaning “until” since the 12th century. Until has been in use as both a preposition and a conjunction for almost as long. Both of these words are acceptable; you may send a text to your misbehaving child stating either “U R grounded till 4ever” or “U R grounded until 4ever.”
… you will probably wish to avoid ’till, use ’tiladvisedly, and use both until and tillfreely. And if you use till in writing and someone tells you that you have made an error, simply take the extra L off the end of the word and poke them in the eye with it.
You’re right, they’re just making a joke, as till also refers to how farmers prepare soil for planting crops.
Suddenly thinking about how the race to sustainably create more soil will probably be a theme for scientific research in the near future.
Desertification is scary!
Lava rock tends to be very porous and “crumbly” though right? I would think it turns to soil faster than most other types of rock.
Soil formation, also known as pedogenesis
No, it’s someone who loves feet.
^ when you’re done ruining Twitter for the day.
In Iceland it’s pretty cold a lot of the year - not insanely, but colder than a lot of plants prefer. So the rock to soil conversion happens via moss.
While on tour there last year, our guide pointed out the ages of certain lava fields, and he noted that the existing lava fields around Grindavik were between 700 and 1300 years old. My photos from the area show that they’re about 60-70% rock, with moss covering the rest. I suspect if you scraped away the moss, you’ll find slightly crumbly rock underneath (But don’t do that - do not mess with the moss in iceland). I’m not sure how long it takes for the lava to be converted into soil, but I would guess it’s more on the scale of multiple thousands of years.
This page (up until the waterfall) has some good photos of a few lava fields and gives dates for the eruptions that created them. Meandering Wild - Lava and Moss
(The photos are at the bottom of each blurb, not the top - so Eldhraun is the one with the rounded rocks and moss at 350 years old, and not the black rocks, and Dimmuborgir, at 2300 years old, is the one with the treetops shown below the craggy rocks.)Another banger from our tour guide was that (according to him) the locals say if you get lost in an Icelandic forest, just stand up. Which is… sorta true. They only tree of real quantity there is birch, and the tallest birch I saw was about 16ish feet (5ish meters). They do not grow heavily, so they’re a bit comedic and stringy. Decades old stands of them sort of look like 1-2 year old stands planted in warmer climates - without any ground cover, of course, because while grass will grow, the usual complement of weeds, vines, and what-not does not.
Why not mess with the moss?
It grows so slowly that disturbing it undoes decades of growth, and since it takes hundreds of years to convert rock to soil, messing with the moss is well, first, just upsetting the natural beauty, but also robs future generations of the land for just a few moments of “huh, neat.” Our tour guide was pretty reverent when he talked about the role that moss plays.
Also they’ll fine you and maybe bar you from returning.
Thanks! I’m in the PNW and moss grows heckin fast over here. We have a constant battle against it in our driveway, and on our roof.
Breathe, son.
Looks like they would need to bulldoze it level and I assume add some fill dirt to even out the grade, I don’t know how many winters such a road would last though.
where do you go with the slag
You sell it as decorative lava rock.
I like the way there’s a police car there, in case people were thinking they might just go for it anyway
You clearly don’t know people
“It’s rock, right?”
I mean, my first thought was “i wonder if you could drive across that.” But I’m also smart enough to not be the first person to try… maybe the second though
The others are already safely across in Grindavik, you’re fine.
Mine was "Man that water is really dark, I hope nobody tries to drive through it. Wait…
Wow, it’s sure smells bad out here. Is anyone >yawn< else getting sleepy?
The top layer is.
Today, someone jumped over the construction barriers on an escalator that was under construction. They fell into the open hole in the escalator, got seriously hurt, and then had the audacity to complain to metro police officers that there was a hole in the escalator for some reason. The police had the grace to not admonish him for being a moron. Both ends were blocked with construction barriers ~4.5 feet high by 3.5 feet deep, and the elevator was right by them, lol. It was very difficult for someone to even vault over in the first place.
Imagine this would happen in the US! The police would have shot the lava!
EDIT: For the Downvoters: Of course they would have shot the lava. Have you seen it? Its black!
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I visited Iceland, not too long ago. The tour guides, politely, made a point of illustrating how much of a rude menace tourists can be with their rental cars. We got a pass, of course, as we were on a tour bus every time this happened. The message was clear: use the world-class public transit and charter busses/tours where possible.
My perspective as a tourist: the cops really are needed in situations like this.
People who make money by shepherding people on buses are fans of bus travel.
Huh.
By the way guys in this country it’s immoral to drive
World class public transit? Lol you can hardly get from the airport to Reykjavik, you absolutely need a rental car if you want to enjoy Iceland
Iceland is actually one of the most car dependant countries in the entire world
Jeep Owners have entered the chat
ԀՈ ƎᗡIS SIHꞱ
So fat tires?
Yah, Jeep guys would have never done that.
I saw a Juck with the doors taken off the other day.
Like a pidgeon wearing floaties.
Tone-deaf bosses be like, “actually we have a return to office mandate… We’re gonna need a note from your doctor.”
“I don’t understand why turnover is so high. Ever since COVID people just don’t have any work ethic. The lockdowns really destroyed our economy in irreparable ways. Wait no, don’t quit.”
The “people don’t want to work anymore” rallying cry has always confused me. Who ever wanted to work in the first place?
That’s always been my response when manager and owner use that whole “nobody wants to work anymore,” thing because they can’t get people to take offers for six bucks a year.
Every single time I hear that, I say out loud, “Well I certainly don’t want to work. Who in their right mind does? That’s why we get paid to do it.”
Just ask the UK how that debt and public services are going.
We’re gonna need a note from your volcanologist.
I bet a Cybertruck couldn’t make it, prove me wrong.
I’m not even sure they can sell Cybertruck in Iceland. Most developed countries have pedestrian safety standards that the Cybertruck can’t pass.
They cannot.
EU safety rules specifically forbid sharp edges (kudos to the visionary who thought about including that one…).
Additionally, it’s weight is absolutely ridiculous, to the point that you cannot drive it with a standard B licence (you need at least C1, which requires specific classes and written + driving exams).
Not to mention, many streets simply cannot accommodate a car so large, and there’s zero parking space for such a monstrosity in most city centers…
Edit: actually I’m not sure if Iceland included these specific EU rules, so maybe they can actually sell it there?..
Edit: actually I’m not sure if Iceland included these specific EU rules, so maybe they can actually sell it there?..
Unless the Icelandic government explicitly passes a law to override an EU mandate, then the EU mandate applies in Iceland. It’s a weird setup, as they are not actually in the EU so I’m unclear about why they follow EU mandates at all. I assume it makes trade easier.
It’s hard to see why they would pass a law to override a safety consideration unless there was a grassroots movement to be able to drive cyber trucks.
so I’m unclear about why they follow EU mandates at all
We’re in the EEA which at this point includes EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. We get to be part of the common market and have free movement of goods and people and whatnot. But it requires “harmonising” rules across the market so that you don’t get technical hurdles instead of straight up tariffs. And then we have no say in these harmonised rules because we’re not in the EU 🤷🏼♂️
TIL. Ty stranger!
EU safety rules specifically forbid sharp edges
That would explain why old cars had a more blocky design while newer cars have a more rounded design (in addition to aerodynamics I assume).
The cybertruck (6653 lbs) weighs less than a Ford 150 lightning (6745lbs) and Rivian R1T (7148lbs)
It’s not even worth looking up the Silverado or Hummer with their humongous batteries
All EV full size trucks are very heavy due to the batteries right now.
For the cybertruck, the stainless steel design actually allowed them to reduce weight by the steel being part of the structure, thus reducing or removing the need for things like side impact crash structures
All of which require you to get a licence to drive lorries. Your point?
Sure, but it’s weight, for what it is, isn’t absolutely ridiculous and is actually best in class.
Yes, its weight is absolutely ridiculous. The other hobbyist’s tanks you mentioned are too. Just because there is more of the same (minus razor sharp edges and rust), doesn’t mean it isn’t sh*t too.
it’s weight is ridiculous, generally speaking.
it’s weight simultaneously ISN’T ridiculous for what it is. Context. For what it is, it is the least ridiculous of all those ridiculously heavy trucks.
That’s kinda like saying “I got the better kind of herpes!”
I got this boat I gotta tow 150 miles, sure glad I can choose the better herpes, and definitely better than years ago when my only choice was cancer!
Off-roading in Iceland is strictly forbidden.
We’re talking about the cybertruck, no one is going to successfully off road in one of those anyways.
I guess that is why Etterra is betting on it. Maybe to motivate another Darwin Award winner.
What really?
I checked and it’s true :
- Off-Road Driving: Damaging and Illegal Off-road driving is strictly prohibited in Iceland, and those caught engaging in the activity can face hefty fines of up to 100,000 ISK per person. Off-road driving can cause irreversible damage to Iceland’s fragile ecosystems, particularly the moss, which takes hundreds of years to grow. Iceland’s moss plays a vital role in preventing soil erosion and retaining water and humidity, making its preservation crucial. In 2018, a group of French tourists mistakenly believed off-road driving was allowed in Iceland, causing significant damage and getting stuck, leading to public outcry.
- F-Roads: A Legal and Exciting Alternative F-roads, or mountain roads, can only be accessed by 4x4 vehicles and are open for a limited period each year, typically from July to September. F-roads are often confused with off-road driving due to their unpaved, rugged appearance and rural settings, but they are legal to drive on. Some F-roads might require crossing rivers and navigating rough terrain, which is why only 4x4 vehicles are allowed on these roads. On maps, F-roads are marked with an “F” followed by a number, e.g., “F413”. Some F-roads may not be clearly labeled in person, so always check your route carefully.
Source: https://www.northbound.is/blog/251/what-is-the-difference-between-f-roads-and-off-road-driving.
God, Nordic countries are so fucking cool.
Well yeah, they are further north.
viking ships is the way
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Saw my first cybertruck in person while on the highway today. It was pretty funny looking. Also, I doubt many vehicles were created to ride lava; let alone uneven terrain to this degree.
The Cybertruck was literally advertised as able to drive on Mars.
Mars is nicely weathered since it hasn’t seen volcanic activity in an extremely long time.
Mars also does not have water. This explains why they didn’t care to properly protect the metal from rust I guess
well… not much, anyway.
A bit of rust
I also recently saw my first in person. It is bigger than I expected and looks really stupid.
You still come in to work tomorrow, right?
Yes sir! Will bring some lava with me 😂😂😂
Yeah grab yourself a couple buckets full and just blot out the rest with several stacks of gravel :D
You just need one water bucket.
Glunk. Tss, tss, tss, tss, tss.
You bought a diamond pickaxe too, right?
Earth: “Oh you want to pave things? Let me help”
Accompanying IKEA to arrive shortly.
To anyone acquantinced with Iceland: What kind of logistical issues does this actually provoke? What measures do you typically (or exceptionally) take to make sure that no location runs unsupplied for too long?
I’m not the kind of person you wanted a response from since I know absolutely nothing, but I would imagine being an island, boats play a big role in keeping supply lines running.
I’ve been there on tour once, and I just looked at an online map to make sure I didn’t misremember. I also follow a guy on YouTube that talks about geology and has been focused on Iceland lately, so I think that makes me a complete expert.
Joking aside, the road to Grindavik is sort of out of the way, but it is the connector road between the south coast and the airport, so it’s like a 45 minute diversion to get to the airport from the south coast (and vice versa). And like an hour+ diversion if you’re going from the south coast to the Blue Lagoon/the geothermal power/hot water plant that provides power and heat to the airport and (I think) most of Reykjavik.
Unfortunately the power plant/Blue Lagoon is very close to the fissure, and it’s possible a future larger lava flow could damage them. (It is expected more fissures/flows will occur, but the location and size are unknown.) I’m sure both the civil engineering and tourism folks are working on spinning up alternative sites.Grindavik, for what it’s worth, keeps bouncing between being evacuated and residents griping so much they get let back in. The Icelandic government has an offer on the table to purchase people’s homes in the town, so they move out. I think the plan is probably to abandon the town, since it’s possible this eruptive period could last hundreds of years. (Or not! We have no idea, really, just past data and informed guesses.)
I’ll have you know, I have pretty high standards to consider someone an expert.
I’ve been there on tour once, and I just looked at an online map to make sure I didn’t misremember. I also follow a guy on YouTube that talks about geology and has been focused on Iceland lately, so I think that makes me a complete expert.
Oh, no! You’re meeting all of them!
You misspelled “Oh, yes!”
Basically everyone gets evacuated from the affected area and are staying with friends and family in Reykjavík. Grindavík is a very small town compared to the rest of the world. The government has offered to buy properties from the ones who cannot return, since the erruptions have been going for a few years in that area and there’s no sign of stopping.
To answer your question for the rescuers, researchers, and workers left in the area, once the eruption starts it’s quite easy to predict the flow. Luckily there are a few other roads without the risk of lava flow, mainly due to lava diverting barricades. In case of emergencies they use helicopters.
Other parts in eruption risk zones would be similar, since it’s just not worth it for people to stay in those areas and most people can stay with family. And repairs to the road are usually pretty quick when the eruption dies down.
But what if I sit outside my house with a garden hose as the lava comes for it?
Depends on how the water lines to your house run.
That’s a decent strategy but really you want as much water as possible.
Not Icelandic, but I’ve been following the situation closely.
This is an evolving issue. Grindavik, the town on the far side of this has been severely damaged by earthquakes and is currently surrounded by a berm that’s (mostly) holding the lava flow back. The Svartsengi power plant is likewise protected by a berm and has had the pipes supplying hot water to Reikiavik damaged and repaired.
Geologist Sean Willsey has been providing outstanding coverage on the subject.
Sorry, but no compassion from me: shouldn’t have built the road right under a lava stream. Stupid decision, really.
Wonder if you could drive on that obsidian, or is it too hot/sharp for any vehicle to drive over that area.
Obsidian forms when lava cools very rapidly, limiting crystal growth. The lava pictured above most likely cooled slowly.
Cool. I guess I used lava and obsidian as synonyms.
That’s no lava, lava is fluid, magma too.
Depending on when this picture was taken, it’s just the outermost layer that’s solid. The lava flows from underneath.
Alas, they are not.
😢
Dammit Minecraft!
I’ve used Obsidian to take private notes using Markdown. Also thought of this:
My son 🙋♂️was SO cute today, he asked me “dad are clouds candy?” 😍 I told him they were water. 💦 Then he asked “Dad, what’s the Earth’s defense system?” and then I remembered I don’t have a son and he asked again with his eyes obsidian black “what is the defense system father”
Loved it, we need more people like you on Lemmy. Keep it weird 🖖
Edit: I use Roam instead of obsidian.
-“Where is Earth’s defense system father?” Intensifies
Love the weirdness
Obsidian is stone glass?
Glass is stone glass.
Is silicate glass.
Too hot, but every other time this has happened in the last several months, they’ve been able to spread dirt and gravel on top to make a temporary road.
After some time, you can. But it’s going to be molten underneath the crispy exterior for a while. You’re going to need some beefy 20 ply off-road tires so they don’t immediately get sliced open.
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Okay, this is my next digital painting attempt reference no doubt. The composition is great out of the box. Easy textures, palette
Is this normal in Iceland? What’s the current situation there?
Edit: Found Details link
It happens. Times past they’ve used buckets of seawater to save villages from encroaching lava. Icelanders are built different.
Well back in the 1990s, Tommy Lee Jones and the LAFD used jersey barriers, fire trucks, and knocked a building over to stop a lava flow from demolishing the west side of Los Angeles, so I’d say we’re pretty impressive too.
Fun fact, in California where the action described takes place, they are officially called k-rails, not jersey barriers. Had to double check wiki to confirm CA predated NJ where I learned about Ontario Tall Wall, which was mentioned but described so…
People credit Tommy Lee Jones, but the true hero was the basketball that we rolled along the way
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This won’t be the most narrative experience of the event, but basically, the town was mostly destroyed, however they were able to use firefighting boats to selectively cool the lava, resulting in not just saving their harbor (the main economic driver for their island), but also improving it, by making it more protected from the ocean.
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Icelandic people meeting god before time started.
God: y’all want to die in fire or ice?
Icelandic people: yes
I follow a guy on YT (An American geology professor) who is pretty into this situation. One of his viewers is a superfan and lived in Grindavik, giving him on the ground updates.
This eruption is expected to be part of a periodic cycle of increased activity that could last hundreds of years.
In a recent-ish video, he said the Icelandic government was offering to buy the home of anyone who wanted to sell in Grindavik, and that his superfan’s house had been purchased by the government.
I think the long term plan is probably to abandon the town.
“When I was your age I had to walk to school through 5kms of lava, just to avoid fighting with bears again, it was actually faster if I ran” just kidding I know we don’t have money to raise children anymore
Looks like a challenge for Cybertruck owners, who would be gullible enough to think their “futuristic” truck probably could drive across that.
