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Iceland


ktm

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Well things aren't good but it's just a waiting game for now.  One town has been evacuated, has suffered a lot of damage and people were given 5-7 minutes to go into their homes and save what they could.  If the town is wiped out, that is worst case scenario along with the Blue Lagoon and geo thermal powerplant just to the north of it.   If it opens up in the sea just outside the town, it is also pretty bad as Keflavik airport is very close by so no flights in or out of Iceland... perhaps the whole of the northern Atlantic will shut down for a while at least. 

Let's just hope this thing moves and opens up somewhere in the wilderness where it won't do any damage.  This is about 30 minutes away from me so yeah... pretty close. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Well it happened.  Yesterday, the only talk on the news was that the people of Grindavík would be able to celebrate Christmas in their own homes and the police were being criticized for almost arresting one person who wanted to sleep in the town and reopen his hotel. 

With almost no warning, a rather large fissure opened up some 3km north east of the town and the lava flow is running to the west, away from the town but directly towards the main road and the Blue Lagoon.  There has been erected a protective barrier all around the Blue Lagoon (mostly though around the geothermal power plant it's right next to) and they are now plugging the gap where the road pass through the barrier. 

The bad news is this is a rather larger eruption than the last fews and the lava flow is heading towards the hot water pipe leading from the power plant.  That carries all the hot water used for heating the homes south west of Reykjavík, for some 40000 people.  If that is consumed by the lava... there is no plan B except to use electricity to heat the homes or at least, keep them from freezing up.   Yeah, this is bad...

 

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