Featured Image Credit: Icelandic Coast Guard via Getty Images/Björn Steinbekk/@bsteinbekk/Instagram
Topics: Iceland, News, World News, Weather
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Iceland, News, World News, Weather
A volcanic eruption in Iceland may result in a whole town being wiped out.
Following increased seismic activity, a volcano near the Icelandic town of Grindavik, located in south-west of the country, erupted yesterday morning (January 14).
It has since wrecked havoc on the surrounding area, with a huge stream of lava engulfing people's homes.
Advert
A crack first opened around 450m away from the fishing town - which is home to around 4,000 people.
Protective barriers of earth and rock initially pushed the lava away from Grindavik, but a second crack opened up a few hours later on the edge of the town - with lava and fire going on to destroy parts of Grindavik.
The eruption marks the second on the peninsula in over a month, and the fifth since 2021.
As the town has been evacuated since November 2023, government officials are confident that the eruption poses no danger to life, with all roads to the town being closed off - but they do fear for Grindavik's infrastructure.
Iceland's president, Gudni Johannesson, said in a post to X: "No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat."
Harrowing drone footage shows peoples homes in flames. So far, three houses are confirmed to have been damaged.
Some Grindavik residents are concerned they'll never be able to go home again.
"We have been told that there are cracks all over the place," Sunna Jonina Siguroardottir, a Grindavik resident told radio station Ras 2, part of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV).
"They are deep in the ground and the effects are not necessarily visible on the surface until after a few years. At any time, something can give way and open up."
Fellow resident, Jon Gauti Dagbjartsson, told Reuters: "This is serious, it's basically as bad as it can possibly get.
"[...] I actually live in the house that I was born in and it's a tough thought to think that this town might be over, and I would have to start all over somewhere else."
Lovísa Mjöll Guðmundsdóttir, a natural disaster expert at the Icelandic Meteorological Office has confirmed that more cracks could open up at any moment.
"It cannot be ruled out that more cracks will open," she told the media, as per Mail Online.
"The GPS data showed us that there is increased magma inflow into the tunnel and with that there is a possibility of more fissures opening up."