Greetings from volcanoland! 🌋
Or, rather, absence-of-volcano land, since the eruption that we’ve had hanging over our collective heads for the last 2-3 weeks has yet to materialize.
BUT before I launch into all that, an announcement: I’ve decided to do an AMA—an Ask Me Anything—for paid subscribers. I’ve never done one of these before, and maybe no one has any burning questions they would like me to answer, but I’m throwing it out there because it could be fun, plus I want to provide something of value to you wonderful people who have signed on to support me with your financial contributions. Your questions can be about anything: Iceland, Icelandic politics, travel, current affairs, my favourite restaurant in Reykjavík, my favourite song, what I am watching at the moment, who to bribe if you want to buy a bank … whatever you want, though I reserve the right to say “I don’t know” if I don’t know, or to demur if it’s very personal (though I know you people are all wonderfully considerate and polite, so not worried). Drop your questions in the comments below, or email me.
Also, I wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post about the eruption situation. It’s behind a paywall, but if you use this link you should be able to read it for free. 💃
All right then!
It has been 11 days since the town of Grindavík was evacuated in a rush due to severe earthquakes and fears of an imminent volcanic eruption beneath the town. As I said, that has not happened (as of yet), but that does not mean the evacuations were in vain. The earthquakes were intense, plus a deep indentation has now formed in the ground that passes through Grindavík, about a metre in depth. Naturally this has caused big damage to infrastructure and buildings on or near that indentation. The rest of the town appears fairly intact, though obviously no one is being let back in for any length of time since the ground may open up at any time, and no one knows where.
The cause of this indentation, we are told, is movement in the tectonic plates that lie under the Reykjanes peninsula. As you may know, the American and Eurasian plates meet in Iceland, and they are moving apart at a rate of a couple of centimetres a year—or sometimes more, as appears to be the case here. You can, in fact, see the rift caused by these movements and cross a bridge from one to the other in a different location on Reykjanes, also known as the Bridge Between Two Continents:
The movement of the plates is also highly visible at Þingvellir National Park, which is part of of Iceland’s most popular tours, the Golden Circle. Indeed, you or someone you know may have walked along that rift, called Amannagjá:
It’s pretty amazing to bear witness to this sort of activity, the kind we have heard about, and of course seen centuries after the fact, as per the above.
It’s a blessing that there were no injuries, at least physical ones, and no one lost their life. On the other hand, as you can likely imagine, being suddenly displaced like that from your home and community is highly traumatic.
On the national level there are many challenges inherent in having more than 3,000 people displaced in a community the size of ours (pop. 370,000 for those who are unaware of our minuscule size). Though as I write this I find it impossible not to think of all the displaced people across the world, and how our problem here pales in comparison with that of many others. After all, we are a small and tight-knit community, a prosperous nation, and no strangers to natural disasters. We have had to cope with situations like this before.
I was a child in 1973 when an eruption began on Heimaey in the Westman Islands. I remember getting up and the radio being on before regular broadcasting normally began at 7 am. It was reporting on the evacuation, which was underway. The main thing I recall is that I did not have to go to school that day because it was being used as an emergency shelter.
Today, as an adult, I am much more aware of the complexities involved. Things like:
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