Officials in Iceland are preparing for the potential for an eruption of one of the country’s many volcanoes after a wave of recent earthquakes.
CNN reported Thursday that local officials have warned residents of the country’s southwestern region, including the capital Reykjavík, that a eruption is possible after thousands of earthquakes in recent days.
“Of course it worries people. For this region, this is really quite unusual, not because of the type of earthquakes or their intensity, but because of their duration. It’s been working for over a week now,” said one Professor of Volcanology at the University of Iceland, Þorvaldur Þórðarson, in an interview with the network. “We are struggling with the ‘why’ right now. Why is this happening? It is very likely that there will be an intrusion of magma into the crust. It has definitely approached the surface, but we are trying to find out if it s ‘get even closer to it’.
Þórðarson’s team on Wednesday released images of possible lava flows that did not predict any city in the country that would be affected by possible eruptions. However, a major road connecting the country’s largest airport with Reykjavík may be less fortunate. Officials do not expect air travel to be affected by a possible eruption, according to Bloomberg.
“Under the current model, no major city is in danger,” Ármann Höskuldsson, another volcanologist, told CNN.
Thousands of earthquakes have hit the southwestern area of Reykjanes over the past week, including more than 2,600 in the past 48 hours, the country’s meteorological office said on its website on Thursday. Several dozen have been of magnitude 3 or higher. The Hill has gotten an earthquake count recorded last month.
A resident of the capital told CNN that earthquakes have been almost constant.
“It’s very unusual to feel the Earth tremble 24 hours a day for a whole week. It makes you feel very small and powerless against nature,” said Auður Alfa Ólafsdóttir.