Iceland on Friday declared a state of emergency after a series of powerful earthquakes rocked the country’s southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, in what could be a precursor to a volcanic eruption.
“The National police chief ... declares a state of emergency for civil defence due to the intense earthquake [activity] at Sundhnjukagigar, north of Grindavik,” the Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said in a statement.
“Earthquakes can become larger than those that have occurred and this series of events could lead to an eruption,” the administration said.
Photo: AFP
The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said an eruption could take place “in several days.”
The village of Grindavik, home to about 4,000 people, is about 3km southwest of the area where Friday’s earthquake swarm was registered. It has evacuation plans in place in case of an eruption.
At about 5:30pm GMT, two strong earthquakes were felt as far away as the capital Reykjavik about 40km away, and along much of the country’s southern coast, rattling windows and household objects.
The biggest tremor had a magnitude of 5.2, north of Grindavik, preliminary IMO figures showed.
Police on Friday closed a road running north-south to Grindavik after it was damaged by the tremors.
About 24,000 tremors have been registered on the peninsula since late last month, with “a dense swarm” of nearly 800 quakes registered between midnight and 2pm GMT on Friday, the IMO said.
There was an accumulation of magma underground at a depth of about 5km, it said.
Should it start moving toward the surface it could lead to a volcanic eruption.
“The most likely scenario is that it will take several days rather than hours for magma to reach the surface,” the IMO said. “If a fissure were to appear where the seismic activity is at its highest now, lava would flow to the southeast and to the west, but not towards Grindavik.”
Nonetheless, the civil protection department said that it was sending the patrol vessel Thor to Grindavik “for security purposes.”
Emergency shelters and help centers were to open in Grindavik later on Friday, as well as three other locations in southern Iceland, for information purposes and to assist people on the move.
The Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination located near Grindavik famed for its geothermal spas and luxury hotels, closed on Thursday as a precaution following another earthquake swarm.
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