by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:25 PM ET, Tue November 14, 2023
If visiting Iceland’s iconic Blue Lagoon was on your to-do list over the next few days, you’ll need to come up with a Plan B.
Officials in Iceland remain on alert over a volcano near the popular lagoon that has shown signs of activity and a “high likelihood” of eruption. The recent observations have included magma moving closer to the surface.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) has been updating its website regularly and posting on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the developments surrounding the volcano. That includes a recent post on X notifying the public that the Blue Lagoon is now closed to visitors.
Since just midnight of November 14 (local Icelandic time) some 700 earthquakes have been located along the IMO calls the “orientation of the magma intrusion.”
The country has declared a state of emergency and at least 3,000 residents have been instructed to leave the small town of Grindavik, which is located near the Blue Lagoon, according to CNN.
Also on Tuesday “an increased SO2 value” was recorded by the Met Office’s gas meters—meaning there’s increased levels of sulfur dioxide in the air around Grindavik.
In addition to continuously monitoring the ongoing seismic activity and ground deformation around the Grindavik-Svartsengi region, officials have installed GPS stations in the area to further enhance monitoring capabilities.
PHOTO: The Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption of April 2010. (photo courtesy of 506243521 / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Ramifications of an Eruption
The volcanic magma that's now being monitored by officials has the potential to erupt beneath the sea, which would be more explosive than if it erupts on land, according to CNN. However, a land-based eruption is likely to do more damage to the Grindavík area.
However, Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London told CNN in a statement that there “is no reason, currently, to think that this eruption will be especially big.” However, McGuire also added that it is difficult to forecast how big an eruption will be.
What else is impacted in Iceland:
- The town of Grindavík is about 43 miles from Reykjavík. There has been no evacuation order for Iceland’s capital city.
- The town of Reykjanesbaer — which is near Iceland’s only international airport and also just 20 miles from Grindavik—has also not yet been affected.
In 2010, when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted,
about 100,000 flights were cancelled and air travel was disrupted for
weeks. However, officials are not anticipating that type of impact in
the current case.
“Eyjafjallajökull involved an eruption through
or next to glacial ice that melted and provided water that made the
eruption more explosive than it would otherwise have been, hence the
high eruption plume and very wide ash dispersal,” Lionel Wilson,
Emeritus Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Lancaster
University, told CNN.
“This should not happen… so they will just be dealing with weakly explosive lava fountains feeding lava flows,” Wilson added.
For the time being, the Visit Iceland website says it
is “not possible to conclude what effects a possible volcanic eruption
on the Reykjanes Peninsula might have on flight traffic to and from
Iceland.”
“It is not possible to say when an eruption might
unfold, or accurately pinpoint where it might surface. The location and
the size of the eruption will determine what affects it will have on
flight traffic,” says the Visit Iceland statement.However,
the aviation alert for Iceland has been raised to orange, which is
meant to indicate that there is an increased risk of a volcanic
eruption, according to the Associated Press.
Currently, all airlines are operating on schedule and travelers are advised to contact their airline for further information.
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