Some of the more than 3,000 residents evacuated from an Icelandic fishing town have been allowed to return briefly to their homes to collect pets and essential belongings, as experts continued to warn a volcano could erupt within days or even hours.
“This will be a planned and controlled operation under the orders of the police,” Iceland’s civil defence force said on Sunday, adding that only one resident from each household in one district of Grindavík could enter their home for five minutes.
They would be driven in emergency service vehicles and accompanied by civil defence workers, the force said. “We appeal to all other residents not to drive towards Grindavík at all,” it said. “This is a responsibility and not a trivial decision.”
A coastguard helicopter would circle above the Þórkátlustað district of the town ready to airlift residents out if the volcano erupted while they were collecting pets and essential belongings, a spokesperson told the public broadcaster RÚV.
The town, about 25 miles (40km) from the capital, Reykjavik, on Iceland’s south-western coast, was evacuated early on Saturday after magma shifting under the earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes, likely precursors to an eruption.
Danielle Rodriguez, an American basketball professional who plays and coaches in Grindavík, described the emergency evacuation on X, saying her team’s Saturday practice had been interrupted by “constant four- and five-magnitude earthquakes”.
While she and her girlfriend were driving out of the town, one of their cars broke down, she said. They pulled over to discuss where to leave it, she said – at which point “I felt the most scared for my life I have ever been.”
The ground “started shaking so much I had to grab a hold of the car and, honest to God, for a good 30 seconds I felt as though the ground was going to crack open and take us both”, Rodriguez said. The pair eventually left on a minor road out of town because “on our second attempt out on the main road, a huge bump appeared”.
Iceland’s meteorological office said there was a “substantial” risk of an eruption on or just off the Reykjanes peninsula, a volcanic and seismic hot spot, due to the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving.
A tunnel of magma, or molten rock, extending north-east across Grindavík and some 6 miles further inland was estimated early on Sunday to be at a depth of less than 800 metres, compared with 1,500 metres earlier in the weekend, the office said.
A meeting between state meteorologists, civil defence officials and experts from the University of Iceland on Sunday heard that seismic activity had remained constant since Saturday morning, with about 1,000 earthquakes recorded since midnight.
Most of the quakes were recorded at a depth of between 3,000 and 5,000 metres, with activity concentrated north and south of Grindavík. Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor of geophysics, told RÚV…
2023-11-12 10:49:27
Source from www.theguardian.com