Iceland bracing for volcanic eruption as earthquakes hit

Yesterday, that total (of earthquakes) went up - over 1,400 were recorded on seismographs.

Icelanders say quakes are no big deal, happens all the time, but scientists are worried about the locations of the epicenters. Most of them, and the most severe are happening at faults and fissures all around the volcano.
 
Will It or Won't It? Iceland's Volcano Threatens Eruption

After several tense days of earthquake swarms, people living on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula are in limbo as they wait to see whether a surging blob of magma about half a mile (nearly a kilometer) beneath their feet will gently quiet down—or explode in a damaging volcanic eruption. ...

...The reason for the temblors was a massive underground river of magma that rapidly shot out from a temporary reservoir called a “sill,” where it had been accumulating about 2.5 miles (4 km) down. As it surged out of the sill, it formed a 9.3-mile-long (15-km-long) intrusion, or dyke. This dyke now sits about 0.5 mile (800 meters) below the surface, according to the IMO. If there is an eruption, it will probably occur somewhere along the dyke.

...although the movement of the magma itself makes the ground shudder, the subterranean changes wrought by this movement also change the stress on various faults in this seismically active region. Thus, the magma activity is triggering earthquakes on nearby faults, and these quakes are larger than those caused directly by magma movement alone.

Given the region’s wild geology, perhaps it’s not surprising that this is not the first time the Reykjanes Peninsula has rumbled to life. Every 1,000 years or so the area goes through periods of volcanic activity that each last 200 or 300 years, Hreinsdóttir says. The last time that happened was between the 10th and 13th centuries. Not many records survive from that time, so it’s hard to use that event to predict what will happen in the future.

...If the latest unrest does lead to an eruption, it will not be likely to lead to the widespread airline cancellations that occurred in 2010 when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted. That volcano pumped volcanic ash more than 5.6 miles (9 km) into the atmosphere, severely disrupting flights over the North Atlantic. The volcanic systems on Reykjanes tend to produce oozy, low-gas lava flows with very little ash. The biggest danger is probably that lava flows will threaten Grindavík or the Reykjanes Power Station, a geothermal plant nearby. Authorities may dig trenches or earthen dams to redirect any flows away from these areas in the event of an eruption, Drouin says.
 
AnnieA said:
Will It or Won't It? Iceland's Volcano Threatens Eruption

After several tense days of earthquake swarms, people living on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula are in limbo as they wait to see whether a surging blob of magma about half a mile (nearly a kilometer) beneath their feet will gently quiet down—or explode in a damaging volcanic eruption. ...

...The reason for the temblors was a massive underground river of magma that rapidly shot out from a temporary reservoir called a “sill,” where it had been accumulating about 2.5 miles (4 km) down. As it surged out of the sill, it formed a 9.3-mile-long (15-km-long) intrusion, or dyke. This dyke now sits about 0.5 mile (800 meters) below the surface, according to the IMO. If there is an eruption, it will probably occur somewhere along the dyke.

...although the movement of the magma itself makes the ground shudder, the subterranean changes wrought by this movement also change the stress on various faults in this seismically active region. Thus, the magma activity is triggering earthquakes on nearby faults, and these quakes are larger than those caused directly by magma movement alone.

Given the region’s wild geology, perhaps it’s not surprising that this is not the first time the Reykjanes Peninsula has rumbled to life. Every 1,000 years or so the area goes through periods of volcanic activity that each last 200 or 300 years, Hreinsdóttir says. The last time that happened was between the 10th and 13th centuries. Not many records survive from that time, so it’s hard to use that event to predict what will happen in the future.

...If the latest unrest does lead to an eruption, it will not be likely to lead to the widespread airline cancellations that occurred in 2010 when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted. That volcano pumped volcanic ash more than 5.6 miles (9 km) into the atmosphere, severely disrupting flights over the North Atlantic. The volcanic systems on Reykjanes tend to produce oozy, low-gas lava flows with very little ash. The biggest danger is probably that lava flows will threaten Grindavík or the Reykjanes Power Station, a geothermal plant nearby. Authorities may dig trenches or earthen dams to redirect any flows away from these areas in the event of an eruption, Drouin says.
Click to expand...
We were caught in that in 2010 ( crikey I can hardly believe it was 13 years ago it seems like 4 or 5 years in my mind)... we were just about to fly to the Uk from Spain and the volcanic ash blew over everything and halted all the airlines for 10 whole days.

We were fortunate because we had a home there so we could return home just 30 minutes from the airport, and book a flight when they started again.... but all the holidaymakers and tourists were sleeping on the beaches with their suitcases.. and many had no money to buy new tickets
 
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