Iceland - possible eruption due near the Blue Lagoon

[KenAdams]

Is anyone following this?

https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2023/11/03/coming_close_to_an_eruption/

The main concern is the power plant next to the lagoon.

There are constant mini eruptions happening too - https://vafri.is/quake/

Poor pets. My kids would be devastated if our cats were frightened and running around there. Just one more awful thing when your life is turned upside down

I thought they got all pets and livestock out with the first evacuation?

They did, but some people had begun to move back and move livestock too. 90 houses were occupied when the town was evacuated again early Sunday morning.

Easy to say they shouldn't have been there with hindsight, but the turn of events has been almost the worst case scenario.

It must be awful, the not knowing. How can you plan a life?

Several of the webcams are wobbling or juddering at the moment. I checked the seismicity record on vedur.is and the weather forecast. There’s a gale warning in place currently and the seismic activity (earthquakes) are not frequent. I’m guessing wind, not earthquakes.

@RomComPhooey Most likely wind. The cameras often move about a bit in the wind.

@Binglebong I guess realistically the town is probably uninhabitable now. Whilst this eruption is dying out now it is very likely to erupt again in the not too distant future. The land north of. Grindavík is continuing to uplift significantly. Even if the eruptions stop there is such a huge amount of damage in the town not to mention the huge cracks in the ground that have already claimed one life.

Is it true that home insurance will only be claimable if the house has been destroyed, not if the area is declared uninhabitable? Or if individuals decide it's not safe to go back?

some explained (not sure where I saw it) that when the town is officially given up the inhabitants can claim from the state and insurance, if they have any, can be claimed as well.

Gylfi's latest thoughts:

The preexisting cracks are also worse now plus new cracks have formed. There was a video yesterday of a SAR man walking along a footpath and his leg just suddenly went right through the ground. He was lucky it was just one leg so he got up and walked away but we already know that the ground there can open up and swallow you.

I read a terribly sad interview with a woman who owned one of the houses that burned. They had built the house themselves, put their blood, sweat and tears into it, and it's razed to the ground. But she said they wouldn't be returning to the town no matter what, because how could you live in a place where your children might not come home because they've fallen down a crevasse.

No, sorry her house wasn't one that burned, but it was on the same road and she felt they had no choice but to abandon it. I don't know how good a job Google Translate will do on it but it was a powerful interview.

www.visir.is/g/20242515555d/segir-i-bua-thurfa-lausnir-en-ekki-hros-thu-sleppir-bornunum-thinum-ekki-ut-ur-husi-

Is there an update on the sheep?

I see one man managed to get his sheep out, after a bit of an argument. And that the state? vets are also aware and concerned.

On the new map prepared by the Institute of Meteorology on January 16, 2024, a newly formed graben can be seen on the eastern side of the older graben. It stretches south to the sea through the eastern part of the city. Sunday's eruption occurred on the western, i.e., the left side of an older tectonic fault [which formed in November 2023].

The data we have compiled shows that new fissures have formed in the eastern part of Grindavik. Of course, there were old cracks, but now they have tightened. In the city's eastern part, the surface sunk by 1.4 meters.

The extension, or deformation, of the new graben is 1.4 metres. Scientists believe the amount of magma flowed from Svatsengi into the magma corridor on Sunday as during the December 18 eruption. It is believed that the volume of magma reached 11-12 cubic metres.

Kristín Jónsdóttir says that the future of Grindavik and seismic activity in Grindavik is very uncertain. No one can predict whether there will be another magma intrusion, whether it will move north or south, or another eruption.
So, can we say that as of Sunday, Grindavík has never been as dangerous as it is now?

“Yes, I would say yes,” says the volcanologist.

Via RUV

Its also being reported by RUV that:

Police drone thermal imaging camera showing raised temperature around cracks in the town

Yes they've been rescued! The farmer had a few choice words to say about the situation apparently but honestly, I'm just glad they are all safe now, or all but one, apparently one had died. It was on one of Silke's 'On the Pulse' videos:

Thanks for the sheep update! It sounds as if there maybe weren’t as many as initially thought, because I think that man only had about 20 or so. Or possibly the others were either outside or located a bit further away and more accessible.

It has been annoying me that it is being reported that the sheep were “abandoned” by the farmers, as if they callously chose to leave them behind. Which is not the case at all.

Don't know if anyone else has spotted this today but the workers near Grindavik are doing some amazing work, I think it's to get a power supply in place but I'm not sure. Been watching them on and off today. They've put up a very high trio of posts and there are wires being attached. I think there's another high pole trio a bit further along. All this near the lava and you can see the pipe line. They've been working nearly non-stop.

There's a story by a blogger I follow which said that 50 plumbers went in to protect the properties. They collected keys and off they went.

One told the owner when he gave the keys back that's the pipes had been fixed, the water switched off at the stop cock and he'd watered her plants for her.

She was so touched at him watering the plants as that's something that he really didn't have to do.

I saw a headline that Grindavick is sinking into the sea, is there any truth in that?

@Binglebong I watched this video earlier and it gives a summary of the land movements that have been going on in the area, including the changes that have happened in Grindavik. In summary, there are two areas of the town that are sinking.

There's also a really interesting overview of how the erruptions in the Grindavik area fit into the wider volcanic systems on the peninsula.

Thank you, I'll check it out after Call the Midwife.

They say the volume of magma accumulated is now a bit more than before the last eruption so it's likely we'll see another one quite soon.

Magnús Tumi (one of the leading volcanologists) has said that it's clear that it won't be possible to live in Grindavík for the next months and years. But that it might be possible for people to work there.

The government still haven't come up with a proper long term plan for Grindvíkingurs as far as I have seen.

Yes I saw that today Puffinshop. Damage to so many houses in Grindavik plus the fissure network, I'd say the town is pretty much uninhabitable for the long term, very sad.

Did you see the indoor football pitch? They're not playing on that any time soon anyway.

No I didn't! Is it badly damaged?

Big crack straight through it, yeah.

www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2024/02/06/myndir_uppgotvudu_hyldypi_undir_gervigrasinu/