The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) says seismic activity due to rising magma a week ago remains high and constant.
No country is better prepared for natural disasters than Iceland, which had to evacuate a town of 4,000 inhabitants threatened by a volcanic eruption, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir said on Saturday.
Residents of Grindavik, located 40 km southwest of Reykjavik, were evacuated as a precaution on November 11 after hundreds of earthquakes caused by the movement of magma under the earth’s crust – a precursor to a volcanic eruption.
Many homes and infrastructure in the city were heavily damaged, raising questions about whether residents would ever be able to return home.
“No country is better prepared for natural disasters than Iceland”said the Prime Minister during a press conference.
“We have long experience with volcanic eruptions. We know that it is not necessarily wise to build, for example, a defense mechanism when the uncertainty about the possibility of an eruption is so great”she added.
The Reykjanes Peninsula had been spared from eruptions for eight centuries, until March 2021. Since then, there have been two more, in August 2022 and July 2023.
“Our main priority now is to welcome these people (evacuees, editor’s note), to ensure that they receive an adequate salary and to find them suitable accommodation for the weeks or months to come”said the political leader.
“It is obvious that this period of uncertainty will last for some time”she added.
“We have submitted a bill to parliament to guarantee salaries for the next three months. And we are working as quickly as possible to ensure suitable housing for these people”she said again.
According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), seismic activity due to the magma surge that occurred a week ago remains “high and constant”he indicates in his bulletin on Saturday.
On Friday, he estimated that a “Volcanic eruption remains likely, the highest probability is that it starts north of Grindavik, near Hagafell.”
The hundreds of earthquakes that shook Grindavik were caused by a massive accumulation of magma in a 15 kilometer long fissure located 2 to 5 km underground.