Screaming sirens accompanied the knocks of officials in Iceland as they made their way from door to door on Tuesday, in an effort convince remaining residents of the mostly abandoned village of Grindavík to evacuate to safety.
Fountains of lava and trails of smoke spewed high into the sky as a volcanic fissure, which had grown to more than one kilometre long, breached protective barriers made from boulders the size of cars, which were meant to shield the small Icelandic fishing village from molten rock.
Emergency services had successfully evacuated tourists from the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury spa hours earlier, when geologists – and an early morning earthquake – first warned an eruption was imminent. But police reported some residents of Grindavik, about 40 kilometres southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, had refused to leave their homes in the morning.
“Those individuals who choose to remain in the town don’t seem to consider that I have 50 people involved in this operation, some of whom are volunteers,” South Iceland police commissioner Ulfar Luoviksson told broadcaster RUV.
“I would ask that more consideration be shown towards civil defence.”
The eruption started at 9.45am local time (8.45pm AEDT), triggering emergency alarms in the tiny town, where webcams livestreamed the lava’s dash towards the defensive barriers.
After the first fissure penetrated the walls, a second opened up between the barriers and Grindavik.
Iceland’s government built the protective barriers in 2023, two years after the geological systems in the area reactivated. Before that, they had been lying dormant for roughly 800 years.
Since 2021, there have been 11 eruptions south of Reykjavik, though none as serious as the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption, which disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.
Flights were not affected by this week’s eruption, which appeared to have subsided by 10.30pm local time, though the Icelandic Meteorological Office warned in a Facebook post: “Although no septic activity is seen, this event is far from over.”
It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last, that eruptions have threatened Grindavik.Credit: Icelandic Meteorological Office
Most houses in Grindavík have stood empty since 2023, when most of the village’s 4000 residents left in a mass evacuation due to the dangers of volcanic activity.
About 40 homes are still registered as occupied, and despite the residents’ initial resistance to leave, by noon on Tuesday – less than three hours after the eruption – officials had declared Grindavik empty of civilians.
It’s unlikely to be the last time residents will be asked to evacuate their homes, should they return after this latest incident.
Experts predict these fissure eruptions – in which lava flows out of long cracks in the earth’s crust instead of a single volcanic opening – could continue for decades, if not centuries.
Iceland, which nearly 400,000 people call home, sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart – a phenomenon visible on land at Thingvellir National Park, the former site of Iceland’s annual parliament.
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