2023-12-19 20:19:28
Lava and smoke were projected several tens of meters above sea level. ICELANDIC COAST GUARD / via REUTERS
The increase in earthquakes ended up causing the evacuation of the small neighboring town of Grindavik at the beginning of November, which remains spared for the moment by the lava flows.
After the alert at the beginning of November, the threat seemed to gradually recede. But the lava finally gushed out Monday evening on the Reykjanes peninsula, lighting up the night in southwest Iceland. The volcanic eruption, which extends over several kilometers, is by far the most spectacular of those recorded in three years in the region.
The Icelanders had been preparing for this for weeks. Last November 11, at dawn, the 3,700 inhabitants of Grindavik had to leave the small port city, leaving everything behind. After days of intense seismic activity – hundreds and hundreds of tremors daily – a fault around fifteen kilometers long suddenly struck the town, cracking the earth, the roads and the buildings.
The magma that flowed below, sometimes less than a kilometer deep, would ” hundreds of times faster than observed » previous years in the region, explained to us…
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