Volcanic eruption could ‘DESTROY port and fill it with lava’, Iceland volcanologist warns amid fears the entire settlement of Grindavik may have to be moved

An Icelandic port is in serious danger of being destroyed by a threatened volcanic eruption, and experts have told local media there are fears a town may have to be moved.

The Scandinavian country is currently bracing for what could be a massive eruption from the Fagradalsfjall volcano, which is located on the southern Reykjanes Peninsula.

This week, police decided to evacuate the town of Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved south towards the town.

Monitoring shows that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, now extends beneath the community, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

The city of 3,400 inhabitants is located about 50 kilometers southwest of the capital Reykjavik.

The Scandinavian country is currently bracing for what could be a massive eruption from the Fagradalsfjall volcano, which is located on the southern Reykjanes Peninsula.

Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson has said that if an eruption were to occur, he expects it could erupt into the nearby sea and says Grindavik will need to be “reorganized” to mitigate the disk of future widespread destruction.

‘I’m also concerned about the port. It wouldn’t take much to destroy this harbor and fill it with lava,” Haraldur told Iceland’s Morgunblaðið (MBL) newspaper.

‘There in the harbor there are both cracks and even if the magma comes up somewhere outside, it flows into the harbor because this is the depression.

“So in the grand scheme of things, this city needs to be completely reorganized,” he added.

When asked by the MBL reporter whether he envisions a future where the residents of Grindavik can return to their homes, he said: ‘What were people not doing in Vestmannaeyjar (a town that was hit by an eruption in 1973)? I think the city needs to be reorganized.’

By this, MBL means that the city may have to be moved – possibly to the east or west. ‘Anyway. It’s nice out west,” he said.

His comments came as Iceland’s Met Office warned that Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula could see decades of instability.

Earthquakes and growing fears of a massive impending eruption mark the start of a new ‘eruption cycle’, Matthew Roberts of the IMO told the BBC.

Eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula restarted in 2021 after an 800-year hiatus, and thousands of people have now been evacuated.

“We expect to see volcanic eruptions along the peninsula, and not just repeatedly in the same location,” Dr Roberts told the British broadcaster.

Instability could last decades, he added.

A police officer stands near the crack in a road in the fishing village of Grindavik, which was evacuated on November 15 due to volcanic activity in Iceland

A search and rescue team member jumps over the crack in a road in the fishing village of Grindavik, which was evacuated due to volcanic activity, in Iceland on November 15

His team made the shocking realization last Friday that magma was flowing into the ground and crushing the rock over a distance of 15 kilometers.

The expert said the magma cut through the ground beneath Grindavik “almost like an underground freight train.” Images have since shown cracks in the ground and further damage to buildings and roads is expected.

The western parts of Grindavik have also sunk into the ground.

Haraldur said it is now clear that the peninsula has awakened and can now be considered an active volcanic belt.

“For some reason Reykjanesíð has woken up, and it can be expected that there will be activity here and there on the promontory,” he said, adding that he expects small volcanic eruptions that could damage nearby settlements.

‘But Icelanders are stubborn, and the smaller the city, the more stubborn it is. So it is difficult to change the structure,” he said, before expressing hope that a relocation of the city will not be necessary.

“Hopefully this just sinks to the bottom and nothing cooks. But there will be more events in the future. This is not the only one,” Haraldur told the local newspaper.

Haraldur has played down fears of a massive eruption, saying he believes the pressure of the magma is not high enough to rise to the surface this time.

However, he acknowledges that experts disagree, and that other volcanologists have different opinions about where an eruption might occur.

‘That’s how volcanology works. It should be closed,” he joked.

‘If the corridor is active and moving south – we see that there are earthquakes that reach all the way under the sea, just south of Grindavík – it would be most natural if it moved to the side and in this system southwest sliding of the city,” said Sigurðsson. In this way a new island would be formed south of Grindavík.

On his blog, Sigurðsson even wondered what a new island should be called.

Local residents wait in their cars to gain access to their homes in the fishing village of Grindavik, which was evacuated on November 16 due to volcanic activity in Iceland.

Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano spews lava after erupting in Reykjavik, July 16, 2023

Looking at recent aerial photos of Grindavík this week, he said he saw two gorges running parallel just west of the town, about 200 meters apart.

He said old footage taken by the U.S. military in 1954 also shows the cracks. Nevertheless, the city was built around them.

“We see it in the US Army aerial photographs from 1954, and there it is clear. But the district manager did not think about that at the time. They were just old cracks and there was no reason for them to wonder about them. It (the city) was just built on top of it,” he told MBL newspaper.

‘That was just the mentality. But now it’s a bigger problem.’