Iceland earthquakes – live: Blue Lagoon closed as eruption expected ‘within hours’ and Grindavik evacuated

The town of Grindavík, just 10 miles south of Keflavik International Airport, has been evacuated as a precaution.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said there was a “considerable” risk of an eruption on or just off the Reykjanes peninsula because of the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving.

“The probability of an eruption has increased since this morning and an eruption could start at any time in the next few days,” it said in a statement.

A tunnel of magma, or molten rock, that extends northeast across Grindavik and some 10km further inland, was estimated late on Saturday at a depth of less than 800 metres, compared with 1,500m earlier in the day, the office said.

A look back to April 2010 when the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano that led to an enormous ash cloud which halted international air travel for over a week

Foreign minister Bjarni Benediktsson praised the people of Grindavik, who had to flee their homes amid fears of a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

“It is probably unthinkable for most people to have to flee their homes late at night, unsure of what will happen next,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Grindavik’s strength is admirable, he said, commending the responders.“We are closely monitoring the situation with our best experts.”

Experts believe that a volcano eruption could heavily damage an Icelandic town of over 3,000 people near the capital Reykjavik.

The town of Grindavik was evacuated on Saturday after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes.

“We are really concerned about all the houses and the infrastructure in the area,” Vidir Reynisson, head of Iceland’s Civil Protection and Emergency Management said, according to AFP.

“The magma is now at a very shallow depth, so we’re expecting an eruption within a couple of hours at the shortest, but at least within a couple of days,” he added.

“We have a fissure that’s about 15km long, and anywhere on that fissure we can see that an eruption could happen.“It’s not the most likely scenario, but we can’t rule it out because the end of the … fissure goes into the sea,” he said.

The earthquakes and ground lift caused by the magma intrusion have already caused damage to roads and buildings in Grindavik.

Travel corrsepondent Simon Calder says absolutely, and reports…

Yes, I would relish the opportunity. Late November is an excellent time to visit Iceland for good value. Conditions right now are also excellent for the prospect of a good show to the Northern Lights, which are at a peak of the usual 11-year cosmic cycle.

I also know that the Icelandic authorities are expert at handling seismic events, with extremely good monitoring and emergency systems in place.

I would book a package holiday, though, knowing that if the earth gets too restless for comfort in the vicinity, I would be able to cancel for a full refund.

Iceland is experiencing a seismic swarm as 1,485 earthquakes have hit the country in just 48 hours prompting fears of a volcanic eruption.

Most tremours have been felt in the Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest of the country where small earthquakes have been felt every day for more than two weeks due to a build-up of volcanic magma three miles underground.

The UK foreign office has updated its travel advice, warning that a volcanic eruption is increasingly likely.

Iceland is highly suceptible to natrual disasters as it lies on the Mid Atlantic Ridge – a divergent plate boundary where the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other, leading to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

The Reykjanes region has in recent years seen several eruptions in unpopulated areas, but the current outbreak is believed to pose an immediate risk to the town, authorities said.

On Thursday, increased seismic activity prompted the closure of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of the country’s main tourist attractions.

Reykjanes is a volcanic and seismic hot spot southwest of the capital Reykjavik. In March 2021, lava fountains erupted spectacularly from a fissure in the ground measuring between 500 750 metres long in the region’s Fagradalsfjall volcanic system.

Volcanic activity in the area continued for six months that year, prompting thousands of Icelanders and tourists to visit the scene. In August 2022, a three-week eruption happened in the same area, followed by another in July of this year.

The Fagradalsfjall system, which is around 6 km wide and 19 km long, had remained inactive for more than 6,000 years prior to the recent eruptions.