Fears over eruption: State of emergency in Iceland

A state of emergency has been declared in Iceland after thousands of earthquakes, with concerns over a volcanic eruption at Fagradalsfjall.

Since late October, Iceland has been plagued by thousands of earthquakes. More than 24,000 earthquakes have been recorded since the end of last month, mostly on and around the Reykjanes peninsula.

The rate at which the quakes occur is rapidly increasing. On Friday November 10th, a severe earthquake with the magnitude of 5.2 was measured.

Due to the number of increased tremors, IMO, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, believes a volcanic eruption could occur within days.

It has also been revealed that a magma tunnel runs under the 3,000-plus resident fishing village of Grindavík, located approximately 50 km southwest of the capital Reykjavik. As a result, extensive damage is already occurring, as above.

The village was evacuated within a few hours on Friday night and into Saturday. However, plans are being made in which groups of residents can go back to retrieve important items.

When residents will be able to return, and whether that will happen, cannot be said for sure.

The famous Blue Lagoon Spa was already evacuated the week prior, as a precaution.

In addition, the main road that runs from north to south on the peninsula has been closed due to earthquake damage. At Keflavík Airport, however, flights are still operating normally.

By now, people on the peninsula are familiar with volcanic eruptions. There have been three major volcanic eruptions since 2021, fortunately all well away from densely populated areas and important infrastructure.

In April 2010 however, the volcano beneath the glacier Eyjafjallajökull erupted. This caused a lot of inconvenience throughout Europe. For example, 100,000 flights were cancelled at the time, stranding 10 million travellers worldwide.