These earthquakes are unusual even for Iceland.
The ground in the southwest region of Reykjanes near Mount Keilir has been shaking for days.
There are “strong signs” of a volcanic eruption.
Reykjavík - In southwest Iceland, near Mount Keilir, the earth shakes almost continuously.
The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) has reported more than 20,000 earthquakes in the past few days on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Are they harbingers of a volcanic eruption?
Icelandic scientists rate this constant seismic activity as a strong sign of this.
"We are not saying that we have any signs that an outbreak has started," Kristín Jónsdóttir of the Icelandic Meteorological Office told local media on Wednesday.
"But that looks like the kind of activity we expect in the run-up to an eruption." Similar quakes have been observed in Iceland before previous volcanic eruptions, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Magma movements are likely the cause of the sustained signal.
Volcanic eruption in Iceland - Mount Keilir has been silent for more than 800 years
It is "more than likely" that an outbreak - the first in the region since the 12th century - would begin soon and could take place within the next few hours, said Víðir Reynisson of the island's civil defense force, according to
The Guardian
.
The local intelligence service
Víkurfréttir
reacted quickly to this information.
On Wednesday evening, the news portal installed a video camera aimed at Mount Keilir and its surroundings.
Exactly where scientists suspect there could be a possible volcanic eruption.
The live stream started on Thursday night.
It broke off after more than an hour, but now it goes on.
“Víkurfréttir will keep broadcasting as long as necessary” can be read on the website.
Iceland - More than 20,000 earthquakes in the past few weeks
The strongest quake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale could be felt as far as the capital Reykjavík - that was on February 24th.
Two 5.0 magnitude earthquakes followed on February 27 and March 1.
So far, the earthquakes have hardly caused any damage.
The Icelandic coastal administration reported small cracks in the roads and rockfalls on the slopes near the epicenter.
The most recent earthquakes have concentrated in the area between the Fagradalsfjall and Keilir mountains.
There is currently no immediate danger.
However, people should avoid traveling to this area.
Geophysicist Freysteinn Sigmundsson explains in
The Guardian
that when magma reaches the surface, it is unlikely that lava and ash will close in the sky
.
He expects a so-called crack eruption, in which lava slowly emerges from a crack on the surface of the earth.
According to the Icelandic civil defense, such lava eruptions can last several days and weeks.
However, the lava flows slowly, it would take a considerable amount of time to flow to a settlement, if it got there at all.
There will be no chaos like the one after the explosive eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010.
Back then, Eyjafjallajökull spat for six days.
Volcanic ash paralyzed international air traffic *.
Millions of passengers got stuck at airports around the world.
How the situation will develop in Iceland currently seems unclear.
However, authorities are preparing for further major earthquakes and a possible outbreak.
All possible scenarios are currently being played out in order to be prepared in the event of an emergency, reports local media.
Earthquake in southwest Iceland - "It was really bad!"
Items fell off the shelves and drawers and cupboards opened in Grindavík on Thursday evening.
“It was really bad!” Writes resident Björn Birgisson on Facebook.
According to the authorities, the earthquake had a magnitude of 3.5.
On a photo accompanying his post, the values of the official IMO list are marked in red.
The earthquake "seems innocent," he adds, but in Grindavík it felt more like 5.5 to 6.0, "simply because the spring was almost under our feet."
"That was a terrible, uncomfortable blow," said Birgisson in his Facebook post.
"And I suspect that many are now thinking of moving to friends and families in 'better' parts of the country."
The epicenter of the earthquake was two kilometers from the city of Grindavík and could be felt in the capital, tweeted IMO on Friday morning (March 5, 2021).
Around 3,000 earthquakes were recorded on Thursday alone.
The location of the quakes is less focused and could indicate that magma is still looking for a way up.
Scientists and authorities are closely monitoring the situation.
In the next few days or weeks, the experts expect the peninsula to be hit by earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 6.5.
Iceland - Mount Keilir
Mount Keilir (378 meters) is located in southwest Iceland on the Reykjanes peninsula, about 30 kilometers from the capital Reykjavík.
There is even a hiking trail to the top.
Mount Keilir is one of the most famous landmarks on the peninsula.
The mountain was formed under a glacier during the Ice Age and is considered a hyaloclastite mountain, although scientists believe it actually acts as a plug for a large crater underneath, writes
visitreykjavik.is.
Little is known about the origin of the name of Mount Keilir, you
can find out
at
Guide to Iceland
.
“Keilir” is a masculine word that is not used anywhere else in the Icelandic language.
Why the female alternative "Keila" - meaning cone - was considered unsuitable despite the conical shape of the mountain is unknown.
The mountains north of Keilir are called Keilisbræður and mean Keilir's brothers.
Fagradalsfjall is a 385 meter high hyaloclastite mountain that was formed during a subglacial eruption during the Ice Age.
A plane crash occurred here on May 3, 1943, in which a US military plane crashed and 14 people died, local media reports.
One man survived the crash.
Among the victims was General Frank Maxwell Andrews.
There is also an active volcanic system in Germany *.
A new study by US researchers found uplifts and expansions in the earth's surface in the Eifel.
(ml)
