Blue Lagoon, Iceland - seismic activity (and webcam)

[merry]

This man drives back to Grindavik with his parents to collect their car and TV.

It's all in English and I found it poignant and fascinating.

They are just talking in the car till 7 minutes in and then they reach Grindavik and it all gets more interesting. I enjoyed the interview with the policewoman in the car as, despite a merry twinkle in her eye, she is what you might call laconic

[Furby]

Where do all the evacuated people and their animals go. We struggle here at finding emergency housing when a single house blows up because of gas pipes and one street gets evacuated. Does Iceland have better plans with lots of emergency housing just waiting for people to move into it.

[OurCreature]

Where do all the evacuated people and their animals go.

I understand that all but 100 people (who are/were in shelters) are staying with family or friends; presumably their pets are either with them or in dog/cat hotels; one such 'hotelier' offered to house cats and dogs from Grindavík at no charge. I should think the 100 who were in shelters a few days ago have now been found somewhere better.

This happened in January 1973 when 5,300 people from the Westman Islands suddenly had to be rehoused on the mainland. Then the population of Iceland was far less than it is now (210k v 364k) and the available facilities somewhat less than they are today. For example, in 1973 I doubt if there were more than 10 hotels in Reykjavík; now there are dozens. They coped with it then, and they'll cope with it now.

[OurCreature]

That´s a very interesting video, Merry, and thank you for posting the link.

The 'policewoman' and her chum are in fact members of Icelandic Search And Rescue (to which I make a monthly contribution) and are in one of ICE-SAR's vehicles; it has the logo near the rear wheel arch below the 112 which is the emergency number in Iceland for everything. Most people in ICE-SAR rescue teams are volunteers.

[eccles]

One thing I noticed about the video is that, apart from the obviously recent seismic cracks, how well maintained Iceland's roads are. I look at the hotchpotch of hastily filled potholes in the road 100 yards from my home and wonder how bad it has to get before the road is properly resurfaced.

[OurCreature]

In my experience roads in the towns generally are well maintained. Nowadays most of the roads connecting the main towns in Iceland are modern tarmac roads, though not always so in Eastern Iceland; many of the little country roads are gravel.

One thing to bear in mind is that when a tarmac road outside the main towns and cities is laid down, it isn't going to have very much traffic on it apart from in SW Iceland - even then a road from, say, Grindavík to the main coast road between the capital region and the international airport won't have much traffic compared with most roads in the UK.

[OurCreature]

They allowed c. 120 homeowners into Grindavík today to collect things from their homes, starting at 09:00. They will have needed an early start because they weren't allowed into Grindavík from the north - they had to come in along the road from the east. So if they were in Reykjavík that meant driving east along Route 1 and then taking Route 39 and 38 down to Þorlákshöfn and then west along Route 427 to Grindavík but that is a long way. You can try to shorten the distance by driving on the Keflavík road to just SE of Hafnarfjörður and cut down along Route 42 but much of that is steep up and down and gravel so perhaps not a good idea.

https://www.icelandreview.com/news/met- ... ains-high/

I've added a map just to give you an idea of the long way round compared with the quicker route. The fact that the danger area seems to be shifting towards the power station might account for the lengthy detour.

[Furby]

The volcano has kicked off.

Just in time to disrupt Xmas planes.

[OurCreature]

Here's a link to state broadcaster RUV via Youtube. At present no buildings are in imminent danger of destruction. The eruption is 3 km north of Grindavík.

[OurCreature]

The eruption might be over as there has been no volcanic activity for the last day or so; the video feed above is showing a blank. However there are signs of a magma chamber building up several kilometres below the Svartsengi power station.

It will be some time before people can go home, as basic infrastructure has to be repaired.

Update - they are letting folk go home to Grindavík today. The only ones who can do that are those whose homes are undamaged and for which basic infrastructure like heat, light, water, sewage etc are still working. A fair number of houses and other buildings have been damaged, some beyond repair I would think.

[merry]

How they must have longed to go home for Christmas .

I hope things settle down for them all for a while at least.

[Furby]

The video feed shows a bleak dark landscape now and is only blank in dark hours which is probably most of the time up there this time of year but I can see a field looking scene with no fires at the moment.

Do they use the volcano for the power station and that's why it's having to be there otherwise seems an unwise place to build a power station.

[OurCreature]

Do they use the volcano for the power station and that's why it's having to be there otherwise seems an unwise place to build a power station.

The power station originally was in effect a by-product of the heat exchanger system they used to heat up ordinary water for the geothermal district heating system. As was the mineral-rich waste water that became the Blue Lagoon. You can read about that in my post dated November 11 in this thread.

As to it being an unwise place to build a power station..........you could say that about almost anywhere in Iceland as most of the country is geologically active.

[merry]

Oh dear, Grindavik is off limits again. A new eruption, and sadly, a man has been lost down a crack that opened up while he was (I think) doing some work on the road

[OurCreature]

The erupting fissures are very close to Grindavík which is very bad news. It seems they opened up just before 08:00 this morning.

[eccles]

The Beeb also has a live feed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-67973655

The lava front centre-right appears to be heading this way.

[eccles]

It's kicked off again!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-68237950

[OurCreature]

Not only that, but it has cut the road from the power plant and Blue Lagoon to Grindavík and has hit the geothermal hot water pipe to Grindavík and the rest of the peninsula as well. That includes all the towns on the north coast of the peninsula so it's a big problem.

https://www.icelandreview.com/nature-tr ... y-at-risk/

[OurCreature]

I see from the Independent via Yahoo! News that the lava crossed the road to Grindavík just by the turn-off to the Blue Lagoon and north of the Svartsengi power station and geothermal hot water plant which is why Reykjanesbær has been cut off from its hot water supplies. It also means that the power station is cut off from its quickest route to the rest of the country eg Reykjavík.

I should think the Icelandic authorities are having nightmares about the seismic activity spreading north from Grindavík, especially if it decides to head north-east.

[eccles]

Frightening but fascinating too.