What an Island Can Teach About Life – The Fascinating Case of Surtsey Island

By Visio Roughton

There are very few places on our planet today that have been untouched by the general human population, and this reality has been true for many years. This was true during the 1960s as well, so when underwater activity spawned a new island out of nowhere off the coast of Iceland, scientists were more than fascinated. The island of Surtsey provided scientists back in the sixties, and even the scientific community today, with information essential to understanding how the natural progression of life following volcanic activity happened.

An Island Appears

Through November 6th-8th, 1963, weak tremors were picked up off the southern coast of Iceland by a seismic station in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, and on November 12th, a station in Reykjavík also recorded a series of continuous and weak tremors that persisted for ten hours. Around that same time, residents of Vík, a town on the country’s southern coast, reported experiencing the smell of hydrogen sulfide. The next day, on November 13th, a fishing boat traveling in the area where the seismic activity had originated noted that the water temperature was 4.3ºF  than normal. 

On the morning of November 14, more fishing vessels entered the area off the southern coast of Iceland where the disturbance was located and this time the cook on one of these boats noticed plumes of smoke and steam rising from beneath the ocean’s surface. What he was witnessing was the effects of an underwater eruption. It was an eruption that carried so much force, it managed to break through the sea floor, spewing lava into the cool sea. Upon contact with the water, the molten rock cooled into a solid mass. As the eruption continued, the mass of cooled volcanic rock grew and grew with height and width. The eruption ultimately lasted for the next three and a half years; all the while spewing ash, tephra (assorted rock fragments that come from volcanic eruptions), and lava until it formed an island that rose over five hundred feet above sea level. 

This new landmass, which was later named Surtsey after the fire giant Surtur from Norse mythology, became Iceland’s southernmost point. 

The birth of Surtsey from volcanic activity was a scientific marvel that, although textbook in its formation, was a rare thing to witness occur in real-time. While other islands —such as the archipelago of Hawaii, or Indonesia—  have formed in similar ways throughout Earth’s history, the actual formation has rarely been observed. Surtsey provided scientists with a unique opportunity to study the entire geological process, from the undersea eruptions to the island formation, giving them a deeper understanding of how volcanically created landmasses came to be.

Life Flourishes:

The natural creation of Surtsey drew global attention; while the public was fascinated mainly by the dramatic circumstances surrounding the island’s formation, the scientific community was more intrigued by the potential research opportunity it posed. This island, which had not been influenced by humans had created a perfect environment to allow researchers to study the natural growth of ecosystems.  By 1965, researchers began to monitor the island, with a focus on their study of study ecological succession (or the process by which life naturally grows on new land)

Unlike other volcanic islands that had long been inhabited and influenced by humans, Surtsey was untouched and thus was almost immediately declared a protected site. This move allowed scientists to observe how the ecosystems on the island developed naturally without human interference. 

As time wore on, life began to pop up across the island; the first living organisms to arrive in the freshly born system were bacteria and fungi, which were then followed by moss and lichens that took root in the volcanic soil. Within a few years of the end of the eruption and the island’s birth, seabirds began to nest on the island; this in turn brought seeds and other plant matter to the island. These seeds were dispersed across the island through the birds’ droppings and this is what allowed for the island’s first plants to grow.  

Over time, more complex ecosystems emerged as insects, marine life, and additional plant species established themselves across the landmass.

The ability to study these processes free of humanity provided scientists with valuable data on how life spreads to barren environments, especially as the ecosystem growth on Surtsey likely paralleled how ecosystems might have formed on other new landmasses throughout history.

Lessons from Surtsey

Surtsey has served as a critical case study in many areas of natural research. The fields of geology, ecology, and conservation all benefitted from the observations made during and after the island’s growth. It allowed researchers have gain a better-informed understanding of how volcanic rock weathers away into fertile soil and how ecosystems (especially isolated ones) can develop on new land. 

 Not only does this knowledge help us better understand the science of the earth, but it also helps when looking at planets beyond our own, as it allows a better understanding of the potential for life on other planets. The ability to predict how ecosystems might regenerate after volcanic eruptions, landslides, or other natural disasters also gained much depth through the research on the island.

Although it is less than a century old, Surtsey has already begun to shrink. At its peak, the island was just over a mile wide in mass, however, the body of the island that was not part of the solidified lava left from the eruption was extremely soft, thus eroding easily under the force of wind and ocean waves. This erosion will continue, however, the process will significantly slow as the more solid rock is brought to the surface and the island becomes more resistant to lava.

Today, Surtsey remains one of the most strictly protected natural sites in the world, and the public has never set food on the island. Only a handful of scientists have been permitted to visit the site, and even then, strict measures are in place to prevent human contamination. Things not often considered, such as a dirty boot, are scrutinized. If the metaphorical boot was a carrier of foreign spores not naturally found on the island, it could upset the undisturbed environment. 

This extreme level of protection ensures that Surtsey can continue serving as a scientific guide on environmental progression to a caliber that cannot be found elsewhere.