For Europe, it may conjure up a horrible nightmare that dates back to 2010 when ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano crippled the air system.
A chaos that had even inspired a comic film by Dany Boon.
The probability of a new eruption near Mount Fagradalsfjall, about 40 kilometers from the capital Reykjavík, "in the next few days or weeks" is considered "substantial", the Meteorological Office of Iceland said on Tuesday evening ( IMO).
Since Saturday around 12:30 GMT, intense seismic activity has shaken the Reykjanes peninsula and a large area around Fagradalsfjallhraun, the name given to the lava field formed by the longest volcanic eruption on the island for 50 years (from March 19 to 18 September 2021).
Prior to last year's eruption, lava had not flowed in the area since the 13th century.
🌋👀#Fagradalsfjall #Iceland 2022.08.02 18:55h….
New vent?….. And what are people doing there?
Install new cameras?
;-)
Footage: https://t.co/nK0IMrFKDs via https://t.co/rCiOJYgfuF pic.twitter.com/Wlp5sXMdoS
— Ar-etsch (@ar_etsch) August 2, 2022
As of the last public count on Monday, more than 10,000 tremors had been recorded by IMO seismographs, including two of magnitude greater than 5.
"Warning signs of the eruption"
The exploitation of satellite images has confirmed a deformation of the earth's crust caused by a magmatic intrusion - an influx of magma - at relatively shallow Fagradalsfjall, about a kilometer from the surface, northeast of the site and far from any dwelling.
If the movements of the ground and the seismic activity seem to slow down in recent hours, "it was one of the harbingers of the eruption" last year recalls the institute in a press release.
A similar seismic episode had taken place in the same region in December 2021 without the lava coming out of the ground but was of less intensity.
Before last year, the Reykjanes peninsula had not been the scene of an eruption for nearly eight centuries, but Icelandic specialists point out that the region has entered a new period of volcanic activity.
