The volcanic eruption that on Sunday destroyed three houses in Grindavík, the Icelandic town of around 3,600 inhabitants where numerous earthquakes have occurred since November and where there was a first eruption in December, could have done more damage. It didn’t happen because in the last two weeks north of the town center it had begun the construction of one protective barriera kind of earth wall, designed to stop the expansion of lava towards homes and designed based on data on the position of the magma beneath the surface.
The defensive wall according to Verkís’ drawing
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The 3D model of the lava from Sundhnúks craters pic.twitter.com/PwiiPwL51q— Birkir (@birkirh) January 15, 2024
Most of the lava remained on this side of the barrier without crossing it, although this had yet to be completed: experts from the Icelandic Meteorological Agency they said to RÚV, the country’s main television network, that the protection proved helpful by directing the lava flow westward. In one point the lava went beyond the embankment, but stopped not far away. The lava that overwhelmed the destroyed houses escaped from a smaller, secondary fissure in the volcano, which opened south of the barrier and closer to the town. Currently the flow of lava from this fissure has stopped.
Grindavík is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland. It is about 50 kilometers from the capital Reykjavík, about twenty from Keflavík international airport, the country’s main one, and less than five from the Blue Lagoon, the famous geothermal area which is one of Iceland’s major tourist attractions. The volcanic phenomenon that is taking place in the area is not linked to a volcano as they are usually understood, that is, to a more or less large mountain from which lava, ash and gas come out, but to long fissures in the ground that open into a flat area.
The barrier project for the protection of Grindavík involves the construction of an embankment approximately 7 kilometers long and between 6 and 10 meters high: the part built so far, however, only reaches half the planned height.
Heroes! 👑
📸 @ragnarthsig Arctic Images pic.twitter.com/iSI2lreoRt— Dagný Reykjalin (@dreykjalin) January 14, 2024
During the night between Sunday and Monday, the night after the eruption, a group of workers he had to save himself some of the barrier construction site’s digging machines and bulldozers from the approaching lava. If the machines had been destroyed by the lava there would not only have been a significant economic loss, but also a major slowdown in the construction of the barriers, because to replace machines of this kind you have to wait months, or even a whole year. However, construction work on the barriers is continuing on Monday. The initial plan foresees that they will continue for a few more months, until spring.
Another barrier, however, had already been completed and serves to protect the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, whose electricity is essential for the Reykjanes peninsula, especially in winter. In case of emergency the control panel can be managed remotely.
The embankment built to defend the Svartsengi power plant from lava, December 22, 2023 (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)
The walls of the embankment built to protect the power plant on the side of a road, December 20, 2023 (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)
More than 24 hours after the start of the eruption it seems that the lava flow is also stopping from the main fissure. On Monday morning, geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson told the RÚV that there is no way of knowing when the eruption will end, even if it seems that it will not last long, a bit like the one in December which stopped after two and a half days.
Grindavík has currently been evacuated and the inhabitants are hosted elsewhere. On Saturday there were still people in about ninety houses, but the sequence of earthquakes that occurred during the day had pushed the authorities to make everyone leave before Sunday morning.
The front page of the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið on January 15, 2024
– Read also: The images of the lava burning the houses of Grindavík