Iceland raised the alarm: hundreds of earthquakes were felt, thousands of people were evacuated

Concern about volcanoes in Iceland has caused a red alert in recent days. Concerns about a volcanic eruption arose after huge cracks appeared in central Grindavik, thousands of people were evacuated and hundreds of earthquakes were felt.

Evacuated residents reported feeling tremors and sounds coming from underground as they fled their homes. According to the news reflected in the world press; Huge holes opened up around the city and aerial images taken by the coast guard showed smoke billowing from the cracks.

Authorities are preparing to urgently build barriers around a nearby geothermal power plant, which they hope will protect from lava flows in the event of a volcanic eruption.

Matthew James Roberts, of the Met Office, said: “We have tremendous uncertainty at the moment. ‘Will there be an explosion and, if so, what kind of damage will occur?’ “We don’t know,” he said.

Magma is building up beneath the city and experts said yesterday that a nearly 14 kilometer-long corridor had developed beneath it and an eruption was possible anywhere along the formation.

Local media reported that seismic activity throughout the night was similar to that of the previous day, with approximately one hundred tremors per hour. He explained that while most of the tremors were minor, the largest were magnitudes 3.1 and 2.8.

Hans Vera, 56, who was born in Belgium and has lived in Iceland since 1999, said his family home was shaking constantly. “You can never sit still,” said Vera, who is currently staying with a relative in a Reykjavik suburb. constantly shaking; “That’s why it’s not possible to sleep,” he said.

What happened shocked not only the local population of the region, but all of Iceland.

“We are really worried about all the houses and infrastructure in the area,” Vidir Reynisson, Iceland’s head of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, said earlier this week. “The magma is currently very shallow, so we expect an eruption soon,” he said.

Local journalist Holmfridur Gisladottir told Sky News on Monday that Icelanders were simply waiting.

What happened reminded me of the eruption that took place at Eyjafjallajokull, another volcano in Iceland, in 2010. The explosion produced a huge cloud of ash that caused the largest shutdown of global aviation since World War II, with 50,000 flights canceled and eight million of affected passengers.