by Living in a country that straddles two tectonic plates and has approximately 130 volcanoes, Icelanders are no strangers to earthquakes and eruptions.
But a lava flow that flowed into the southwestern town of Grindavik on Sunday and burned three houses – the first time in about 50 years that a residential area was affected – was further evidence that a new and threatening phase of seismic activity had begun in the area. , according to the president of Iceland.
“A discouraging period of unrest has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula,” President Gudni Johannesson said in a televised address Sunday night, referring to the area that includes Grindavik. “What we all hoped would not happen has come to pass.”
Since 2020, scientists have seen signs of increased volcanic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which had been dormant for 800 years, and have detected tens of thousands of earthquakes in recent months. In response to a possible eruption, Iceland has built defensive barriers around a geothermal power plant, which supplies hot water to the area, and around other potentially vulnerable sites nearby.
Grindavik, a fishing village of 3,600, was evacuated in November after strong seismic activity was recorded on the peninsula, and then again in December, when a lava flow erupted in a remote valley north of Grindavík for several days. , without causing damage. Residents were advised not to return to their homes, and before Sunday’s eruption, authorities ordered a full evacuation of the 200 people who had remained.
University of Iceland volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson said Monday that the threat to the peninsula, where some 31,000 residents live in several locations, will not end soon.
“This new chapter on the Reykjanes Peninsula will last a long time,” he said, adding: “A large populated area is at stake.”
The scorching orange lava flow that erupted from a fissure on Sunday and descended on Grindavik has left a question mark over when residents there could return.
The earthquakes also damaged dozens of buildings and roads in the city, and last week a construction worker fell into a crack and died.
Hordur Gudbrandsson, 63, a local union leader, said that before Sunday’s lava flow, business owners in Grindavik had been planning to reopen.
“The eruption has changed the tone,” Gudbrandsson said. “For how long, I don’t know.”
Grindavik’s population has boomed in recent years thanks to the influx of people from the capital, Reykjavik, which is just a 45-minute drive away. In addition to commuting jobs, residents could find work at the geothermal plant, in the fishing industry or at the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa popular with tourists.
Gudbrandsson said he was concerned about the town’s future, but noted that for a community that traditionally made its living on fishing boats in the stormy North Atlantic, facing adversity was a common trait.
Bad news about shipwrecks and drownings has always been a part of life, he said: “We know how to stick together.”
Grindavik resident and legislator Vilhjalmur Arnason said he was sure residents would return. He cited an eruption of the Eldfell volcano in 1973, which spewed ash and lava over much of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands off southern Iceland, destroying several hundred homes. Many residents eventually returned to the island.
“If you live in Iceland,” Arnason said, “you have to make do with living with nature.”
