The threat of a catastrophic volcanic eruption plunges Iceland into chaos

Scientists have named the distinctive feature of the coming cataclysm

The threat of a volcanic eruption leaves Iceland waiting in uncertainty. Authorities believe it could be months before people evacuated from the town of Grindavik can return home, even if the danger subsides.

People in southwest Iceland remain on edge as they wait to see if the volcano rumbling beneath the Reykjanes Peninsula will erupt, the Associated Press reports.

Even if that doesn’t happen, civil protection authorities said it will likely be months before residents evacuated from the danger zone can return home safely.

The fishing town of Grindavik was evacuated a week ago as magma rumbled and twisted underground amid thousands of earthquakes. Seismic activity has left jagged cracks running through the city, lifting the ground in places by 1 meter or more.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said there was a “significant possibility” that an eruption would occur somewhere along the 15-kilometre magma tunnel, and that the “primary location” was an area north of Grindavik, near Mount Hagafell.

As the Associated Press notes, Grindavik, a town of 3,400 people, is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 31 miles southwest of the capital Reykjavik and close to Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s main hub for international flights. The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal resort, one of Iceland’s top tourist attractions, was closed until at least the end of November due to the danger posed by the volcano.

Residents of Grindavik were allowed to return for five minutes each to save valuables and pets.

The volcanic system on the Reykjanes Peninsula has erupted three times since 2021 after 800 years of inactivity, the Associated Press recalls. Previous eruptions occurred in remote valleys without causing damage.

Iceland lies above a volcanic zone in the North Atlantic and on average erupts every four to five years. The most destructive eruption in recent memory was the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which sent huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and grounded flights across Europe for days over fears that the ash could damage aircraft engines.

Scientists say the new eruption will likely produce lava, but not ash clouds.

British geoscience teacher Margaret Hartley predicted that an eruption would occur when an open fissure opened, connecting the magma dam to the Earth’s surface. She told Live Science that the process is “a bit like shaking a can of soda—as soon as a crack opens at the top of the can, the drink comes out with a lot of foam.”

“I do think there will be an eruption, but the big question is when it might happen,” she stressed.

And volcanologist Lovisa Mjoll Gudmundsdottir said in a comment to the Daily Mail that an eruption could begin in just a few minutes: “In such situations, things can change very quickly. If an eruption occurs, it may happen before we can predict it.”