Earth has a brand new 'baby' volcano where tourists can watch it erupting

A new 'baby volcano' has sprung up, and you can watch it erupting live.

Volcanos have long fascinated humanity, there's something terrifying and yet somehow extremely compelling about a load of molten rock being spewed out from the depths of the Earth.

In fairness, it is a very interesting thing.

Now, another volcano has opened up, and is now the subject of a live stream on YouTube. And it looks very very cool indeed.

But where is this 'mini volcano'? Well the name might give you a clue. The volcano is called Litli-Hrútur.

Did you guess?

Well, Litli-Hrútur is in fact in Iceland, a country which is known for its large amount of volcanic activity. In fact, one of the most famous tourist attractions, the Blue Lagoon, originated as part of a hydrothermal power station.

In Icelandic, Litli-Hrútur translates into 'Little Aries'. Aries is, of course, the Ancient Greek god of war, and is also associated with fire.

YouTube/RÚV

Given that it's only a tiny volcano, in relative terms at least, this seems like a very fitting name.

And Litli-Hrútur is extremely young, and not just in volcano terms either, but in human ones too as it only started erupting in July of this year.

On 10 July, three cracks appeared at the base of a mountain in Iceland and began to throw lava and gases into the air. Two of the cracks subsequently closed up, but one has continued growing since and continues to spew out lava.

At present, the crater is around 30 metres across and there have been some truly stunning images taken of it so far. There's even a live stream on YouTube if you want to see how it is right now:

Volcanos can, of course, be extremely dangerous - wild discovery, I know.

However, continuously erupting ones can sometimes actually be less dangerous than ones which don't erupt for a long time.

This is because if a volcano is continually erupting then pressure is being released. But if pressure starts to build over a very long time, then when that pressure finally does get released it can have catastrophic consequences.

A big example of this is the infamous Mount St Helens eruption, which literally demolished a mountain.

YouTube/RÚV

Imagine pumping air into a bottle with no cap, the air can escape. That's fine, but if you put a cork in the bottle it will explode out far more dramatically.

However, in Iceland predictable volcanic activity can be very useful.

Believe or not, you can actually grow bananas in Iceland, with polytunnels being heated by volcanic energy. It can also be used to generate green electricity.

Pretty cool stuff, I know.

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