Seismic activity intensified overnight near town of Grindavik, in country’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years
  • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    11 months ago

    I have close friends from Grindavík, it’s surreal and sad watching its destruction live on television. A building is currently being surrounded by lava on one of the livestreams. Luckily it’s only an abandoned research facility, but it’s only a matter of time until it reaches the nearest residencies.

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago

    Again?!

    The eruption marks the fifth on the Reykjanes peninsula since 2021. There was a powerful volcanic eruption near Grindavík on 18 December after weeks of earthquakes.

    Yup, again. Also apparently the barriers they were building haven’t worked. The lava is currently 450m away from the nearest houses.

    Edit: Houses have been on fire for the last hour or two.

    • Overzeetop@kbin.social
      9·
      11 months ago

      Based on videos from one of the major lava-themed entertainment venues who has been posting updates for two months, the “barriers” for Grindavik were barely started, with work only beginning some time after January 4th or 5th. The primary focus of the public work was in building the barriers to protect the regional power plant to the east of the fissures (and hot springs resort area just east and north the power plant). IIRC, those barriers took a month to construct.

      The subsurface dam/inclusion runs pretty much directly under Grindavik, so if an active eruption opens along the southern edge of the magma inclusion there will be no way to prevent damage to those houses adjacent.

      Disc: I’m neither a seismologist nor a volcanologist, but I’ve seen Journey to the Center of the Earth. Oh, and I was in Grindavik in October.

  • Nighed@sffa.communityEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    Ah, that’s a shame, they placed the barriers on an area around the town that had never had an eruption (just lava).

    Looking at the live videos I have to admit I had to laugh initially, it looks so much like Mother mature just saying FU to our attempts to control her, it stops for the barrier, has a gap, then pops up again just outside town. (Man made lava barrier route (ish - as far as I can see, guessing in the distance, if even built) highlighted - it even left a nice gap for the barrier!)

    I guess it just shows how you can’t trust volcanos!

    • Nighed@sffa.communityEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      The barriers would have worked too ☹ (lava from the main vent has been redirected away)

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated at about 3am (0300 GMT) on Sunday, the Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported.

    “A crack has opened up on both sides of the dikes that have begun to be built north of Grindavik,” the MetOffice wrote.

    Live images showed jets of glowing orange lava spewing up against the dark winter sky.

    Grindavik, a small fishing village of about 4,000 people, was evacuated as a precaution on 11 November.

    Since then, residents have been allowed to return for brief periods, before an evacuation was again ordered overnight.

    Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.

    The original article contains 186 words, the summary contains 110 words. Saved 41%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!