"On our toes and on alert"
The seventh eruption at the Sundhnúkagígar crater row ended on December 9th. mbl.is/Hákon
"We are just on our toes and on alert," says Benedikt Gunnar Ófeigsson, head of deformation measurements at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, in an interview with mbl.is when asked about the situation on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
The likelihood of an eruption at the Sundhnúkagígar crater row seems to be increasing every day.
A danger level was declared due to the risk of an eruption at the Sundhnúkagígar range on Thursday, but the inflation and magma accumulation under Svartsengi continues and the amount of magma that has accumulated below is now approaching the amount that emerged in the last eruption in December.
We must be prepared
"This has remained fairly stable," Ófeigsson says, but the bad weather of recent days has affected the Meteorological Office's measuring system and will continue to do so based on the weather forecast for the next few days.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office's inflation measurements at Svartsengi since they began in November 2023. You can see how the land has risen after each eruption. Graph/The Icelandic Met Office
Ófeigsson says that the situation is such that an eruption can be expected at any time.
"There's no way to tell when it will start erupting. It could be a few weeks, but we're at a point now where we have to get ready," he says.
The Chief of Police in Suðurnes advises people not to travel to Grindavík unless necessary, as seven volcanic eruptions have erupted at the Sundhnúkagígar crater row since December 18, 2023.
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