Officials in Iceland are preparing for the potential for an eruption of one of the country’s numerous volcanoes after a series of recent earthquakes.
CNN reported on Thursday that local authorities have warned residents of the country’s southwestern region, including the capital Reykjavik, that an eruption is possible after thousands of tremors in the past few days.
“Of course it worries people. For this region, this is quite unusual, not because of the type of earthquakes or their intensity, but because of its duration. It has been happening for more than a week,” said a professor of volcanology at the University from Iceland, Þorvaldur Þórðarson, in an interview with the network. “We are fighting ‘why’ at the moment. Why is this happening? It is very likely that we will have an intrusion of magma into the crust there. It has definitely approached the surface, but we are trying to find out if it is moving even closer his. “
Þórðarson’s team released images of potential lava flows on Wednesday that did not predict that any city in the country would be affected by potential eruptions. However, a main road that connects the country’s largest airport to Reykjavik may be less lucky. Authorities do not expect air travel to be affected by a possible eruption, according to Bloomberg.
“Based on the current model, no big city is in danger,” Ármann Höskuldsson, another volcanologist, told CNN.
Thousands of earthquakes hit the southwestern area of Reykjanes last week, including more than 2,600 in the past 48 hours, the country’s weather office said on Thursday on its website. Several tens of magnitude 3 or higher. The Hill requested a count of the earthquakes recorded last month.
A resident of the capital told CNN that the earthquakes have been almost constant.
“It is very rare to feel the Earth trembling 24 hours a day for an entire week. It makes you feel very small and powerless against nature, ”said Auður Alfa Ólafsdóttir.