2023-11-14 22:33:16
Since the beginning of November, several citizens of the city of Grindavík, in the southwest of this island, in the North Atlantic, documented repetitive earthquakes on social networks that, despite their short duration, were strong enough to knock objects off their shelves, move doors or cause small interruptions in electrical networks.
These telluric movements were increasingly increasing, raising alarms about a possible volcanic eruption.
(We recommend: These are the surprising images of an active volcano recorded with a close-up drone).
According to the Geological Survey of Iceland, the current eruption could be the most powerful since 1973, the year the Edfell volcano erupted. On that occasion, the volcano was active for about six months, covering much of the Vestmannaeyjar region with ash.
Now, years later, earthquakes and a huge 15-kilometer-long crack, which now extends from the northwest of Grindavík to the Atlantic Ocean, warn of the imminent event.
The Blue Lagoon near the town of Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland.
Photo:
Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP
According to reports provided by the institution, more than 2,000 seismic movements have been recorded in just 48 hours, approximately 600 of them during the last night, all with a slight magnitude of 3.0 on the Richter scale. This has caused structural damage to several facades of buildings in the city of Grindavik.
The southwestern town of Grindavik, home to about 4,000 people, was evacuated in the early hours of November 11.
Photo:
Kjartan TORBJOERNSSON / AFP
But this is not the only thing. The magma is also another indication of the possible eruption.
“Since the morning of November 11, seismic activity in the magma intrusion has remained fairly constant. Since midnight on November 12, around a thousand earthquakes have been recorded within the boundaries of the dam, all of them magnitude less than 3 .0”, reads a statement issued on November 13 by the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Emergency services member walking near a crack.
Photo:
Kjartan TORBJOERNSSON / AFP
“GPS measurements from the last 24 hours show that the deformation associated with the magma tunnel that formed on Friday, November 10 has slowed down,” which “suggests that the magma is moving closer to the surface,” it adds.
Authorities are currently urgently preparing to build defense walls around a nearby geothermal power plant that they desperately hope will protect it from lava flows.
Likewise, they work on the cracks in order to study them thoroughly and also prevent citizens from approaching them.
(Also: Iceland: how Earth’s newest ‘baby volcano’ formed that fascinates geologists).
Iceland is no stranger to eruptions and this, in part, has helped to understand the behavior of volcanoes, as well as to devise some measures to try to prevent a major disaster.
According to Edward Marshall, a geochemist at the University of Iceland, in an interview with the popular science medium National Geographic, preventive evacuation plans have been established for Grindavík, at the same time that workers are implementing measures to ensure the remote operation of the power plant, which plays a crucial role in the region, especially during the winter season.
At the same time, the state of emergency proposed by the Government will allow the authorities to more closely evaluate the situation and close the highest risk areas, to the extent possible.
Laura Natalia Bohórquez Roncancio
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