Friday, May 10

Inaspect Iceland ‘ghost city’ as earthquakes spark evacuation and magma strikes beneath

Grindavik is now a ghost city.

It has all of the acquainted locations – outlets, cafes, colleges and condo blocks.

But they’re all empty, deserted within the rush to flee an earthquake swarm over the weekend.

We have been taken into the city below police escort, passing by a number of checkpoints.

Follow reside: 800 new earthquakes elevate volcanic eruption fears

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A fissure stretches throughout a highway within the city of Grindavik. Pic: AP

Police blocks a road leading to the village of Grindavik, which was evacuated due to volcanic activity
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Residents have been evacuated from Grindavik as earthquakes trigger injury to roads

The authorities are jumpy.

The magma is now regarded as simply 500m beneath the floor proper on the sting of city they usually worry there might be an eruption at any time.

In the city centre the bottom seems to be like it’s being unzipped, with a gash stretching 150m or so.

A road is damaged in the village of Grindavik, which was evacuated due to volcanic activity, in Iceland November 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ben Makori
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More than 800 earthquakes have taken place on Wednesday alone

Where it crosses a foremost highway the rip is a few metres extensive, with one aspect a metre decrease than the opposite. There are monumental forces at work, splitting megatonnes of rock.

And the earth remains to be shifting, stones shifting and tumbling down into the crack. In locations it was too deep to see the underside.

Clouds of steam rise from the gash. Hot water pipes that after heated properties and companies are actually pulled aside with the shifting floor.

The floor beneath our ft is meant to be rock stable. We even name it ‘terra firma’. But it is not in Grindavik, not now. You really feel it might swallow you up at any second.

Read extra:
Do we all know when the volcano will erupt?
How huge might the eruption be?

A line of cars queued on a road heading to the town of Grindavik. Pic: AP
Image:
A line of vehicles queued on a highway heading to the city of Grindavik. Pic: AP

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Roads broken by rising magma beneath

That feels like a catastrophe film, and the city seems to be like a Hollywood set.

But a number of days in the past this was a thriving neighborhood of virtually 4,000 individuals.

They have been allowed to sprint again to their properties in latest days to gather important belongings.

Now, that appears to have now stopped, and it is largely emergency staff left within the city.

There is not way more they will do.

Grindavik is on the mercy of the molten rock rising from beneath. And in some unspecified time in the future will probably be left to its destiny.

Content Source: information.sky.com