Volcanic Activity Marks ‘New Eruptive Phase’ As Iceland Rocked By More Than A Thousand Quakes

 Volcanic activity marks a “new eruptive phase” scientists have warned as an area in Iceland gets rocked by more than a thousand earthquakes in recent days, which has resulted in homes being torn apart and more.

The small fishing town of Grindavik looks more like a “ghost town” following activity from the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Daily Mail reported.

Iceland’s Met Office told the outlet that the “likelihood of a volcanic eruption is high” in the coming days following a 2021 eruption after 800 years of inactivity.

Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer said that the blast two years earlier kicked off “a new eruptive phase,” which he said could “mark the start of centuries of eruptions.”

“Time’s finally up,” Edward W. Marshall, a researcher at the University of Iceland’s Nordic Volcanological Center, told Live Science. “We can get ready for another few hundred years of eruptions on the Reykjanes.”

The coastal town in recent days has been the center of 1,100 quakes as magma continues to rise closer to the earth’s surface, with homes ripped from their foundation and giant cracks leaving gaping holes in main roads in the community.

Some 4,000 residents were forced to evacuate the area with some allowed back to collect personal belongings before officials ordered that they leave again due to increased levels of sulphur dioxide (a possible indicator of an eruption) that had been detected, the outlet noted.

 

“At this stage, it is not possible to determine exactly whether and where magma might reach the surface,” the Meteorological Office said.

One resident told MailOnline, “Friday was terrible, the earthquakes did not stop for many hours, but we left our house Friday night at 9 p.m. with clothes for two days and two boxes of photo albums, then just planned to come the next day to pick up more.”

“I feel ok, but get scared and jump at the slightest sound, and then we are homeless in one minute – I’ve got all kinds of emotions going on,” the person added.

“We got to go inside the house on Monday,” the resident added. “We had seven minutes to pick up what we wanted to save, but the emphasis was on personal things from my family — my mother, grandmother and grandfather — and clothes.”

The area was hit with a three-week eruption in August 2022, which was followed by another earlier this summer.