The town of Grindavik, in southwest Iceland, which has around 4,000 inhabitants, was evacuated overnight from Friday to Saturday due to fears of a volcanic eruption near homes, civil protection authorities announced on Saturday, November 11.

Iceland declared a state of emergency on Friday after a series of earthquakes shook the southwest Reykjanes peninsula, which could be a precursor to a volcanic eruption near Sundhnjukagigar, in some three kilometers north of Grindavik.

Iceland’s weather service initially said an eruption was likely “days rather than hours away” after observing magma had built up beneath the Earth’s surface at a depth of around five kilometers. , during many days.

A “significantly higher” amount of magma

But late Friday, meteorological services noticed that seismic activity was moving closer to the surface and that magma was beginning to rise vertically toward the earth’s crust between Sundhnjukagigar and Grindavik, suggesting that an eruption could occur sooner. .

Authorities decided to evacuate Grindavik after the weather service said it was “likely that a magma intrusion extended beneath Grindavik.” “At this stage it is not possible to determine exactly if and where magma might reach the surface,” they explained.

However, the weather service noted that “the amount of magma involved is significantly greater than has been observed during the larger magma intrusions associated with the Fagradalsfjall eruptions.”

Three eruptions took place near Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in March 2021, August 2022 and July 2023. However, these three eruptions occurred far from any infrastructure or populated areas. Grindavik, about 40 kilometers southwest of the capital Reykjavik, is close to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist destination that temporarily closed earlier this week as a precaution.

Five hundred earthquakes

The town is also close to the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, the main supplier of electricity and water for 30,000 residents of the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said five hundred earthquakes were recorded in the region between 7 p.m. (Paris time) Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, including fourteen with a magnitude greater than 4.

Iceland has thirty-three active volcanic systems, the highest number in Europe. This North Atlantic island straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.