Living in a rustic that straddles two tectonic plates and has 130 or so volcanoes, Icelanders are not any strangers to earthquakes and eruptions.
But a lava stream that flowed into the southwestern city of Grindavik on Sunday, burning three properties — the primary time in about 50 years {that a} residential space had been affected — was additional proof {that a} threatening new part of seismic exercise had began within the space, in accordance with Iceland’s president.
“A daunting period of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula,” the president, Gudni Johannesson, mentioned in a televised tackle on Sunday evening, referring to the realm that features Grindavik. “What we all hoped would not happen has come to pass.”
Since 2020, scientists have seen indicators of elevated volcanic exercise on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which had been dormant for 800 years, and so they have detected tens of hundreds of earthquakes in latest months. In response to a possible eruption, Iceland has constructed defensive obstacles round a geothermal energy plant, which provides scorching water to the realm, and round different probably weak websites close by.
Grindavik, a fishing city of three,600 individuals, was evacuated in November after robust seismic exercise was recorded on the peninsula, then once more in December, when a stream of lava erupted in a distant valley north of Grindavík for a number of days, with out inflicting injury. Residents have been suggested to not return to their properties, and earlier than the eruption on Sunday, the authorities ordered an entire evacuation of the 200 individuals who had remained.
A volcanologist on the University of Iceland, Thorvaldur Thordarson, mentioned on Monday that the menace to the peninsula, the place about 31,000 residents dwell in a number of cities, wouldn’t finish quickly.
“This new chapter on the Reykjanes Peninsula will last for a long time,” he mentioned, including, “A large, populated area is at stake.”
The scorching orange stream of lava that poured out of a fissure on Sunday, descending on Grindavik, has left a query mark over when residents there would possibly return.
The earthquakes have additionally broken dozens of buildings and roads within the city, and a development employee final week fell via a crack and died.
Hordur Gudbrandsson, 63, chief of a neighborhood labor union, mentioned that, earlier than Sunday’s lava stream, business house owners in Grindavik had been planning to reopen.
“The eruption has changed the tone,” mentioned Mr. Gudbrandsson. “For how long, I don’t know.”
Grindavik’s inhabitants has boomed in recent times because of an inflow of individuals from the capital, Reykjavik, which is simply a 45-minute drive away. As nicely as commuting jobs, residents may discover work on the geothermal plant, within the fishing trade or on the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa standard with vacationers.
Mr. Gudbrandsson mentioned he was involved about the way forward for the city, however he famous that, for a group that historically made its dwelling on fishing boats within the stormy North Atlantic, dealing with as much as adversity was a standard trait.
Bad news about sinking ships and drownings have all the time been a part of life, he mentioned: “We know how to stand together.”
Vilhjalmur Arnason, a lawmaker and resident of Grindavik, mentioned he was positive that residents would return. He cited an eruption of the Eldfell volcano in 1973, which dumped ash and lava over a lot of Heimaey, within the Westman Islands off southern Iceland, destroying a number of hundred properties. Many residents ultimately went again to the island.
“If you live in Iceland,” Mr. Arnason mentioned, “you have to manage to live with the nature.”
Source: www.nytimes.com