Huge cracks appear on roads in Icelandic town at risk of volcanic eruption
Iceland has recorded about 2,000 mini-quakes in the last 24 hours as officials warn that a volcano is close to erupting in the country, most likely close to the mountainous region of Hagafell in the “coming days”.
Iceland’s Met Office said magmatic gas has been detected at a borehole in Svartsengi, signalling an imminent eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano over the coming days, with the town of Grindavik most at risk.
“Hagafell is thought to be a prime location for an eruption,” according to the Iceland Met Office.
Magma has been building underneath Iceland and Margaret Hartley, a senior lecturer in Earth sciences at the University of Manchester, said an eruption was a case of when, not if.
“I do think an eruption will take place, but the big question is when that might happen,” she told Live Science.
An eruption would take place when an open fracture connecting the magma dike to the Earth’s surface opens up.
“The most likely way to create this fracture is that a pressure build-up of gas bubbles in the dike will force magma towards the surface, breaking the crust apart,” she said.
“The process is a bit like shaking up a can of fizzy drink – as soon as a crack opens in the top of the can, the drink escapes with lots of frothing.”
