Most of us already know that there are certain parts of the world that are more prone to earthquakes than others, and residents of those places like Southern California, Indonesia, and parts of China are quite used to them at the moment. One such area that is used to the occasional tremor is the small island of Iceland.
There, earthquakes are common because the country spans two of the Earth’s tectonic plates, both the North American and Eurasian plates. They remain separated by an undersea mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which releases molten hot rock from deep within the Earth.
Despite earthquakes being common in Iceland, the country was unprepared for the events of the past week, including a mind-boggling 18,000 earthquakes that hit the island in the space of about a week. The earthquake swarm began on Feb. 24 with a magnitude 5.7 earthquake, the largest to date, followed by thousands of smaller ones.
“I’ve seen earthquakes before, but never so many in a row,” Reykjavik resident Auður Alfa Ólafsdóttir told CNN. “It is very unusual to feel the earth vibrate 24 hours a day for a week. You then feel very small and powerless against nature.”
What scientists have to say
Geophysicists and volcanologists say seismic activity on the island has been increasing since December 2019, and although the volcanoes in southwest Iceland have remained silent for about 800 years, they said that dormancy period may finally come to an end.
Experts argue that the intense series of earthquakes is the culmination of more than a year of intense seismic activity, and that similar tremors have been observed prior to past volcanic eruptions. The Icelandic Meteorological Bureau told The New York Times that magma movements were a likely cause of the earthquakes, and the agency warned that an eruption could occur within days or weeks.
“The two tectonic plates are moving away from each other, and that movement has created the conditions for magma to rise to the surface,” Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a research professor in geophysics at the University of Iceland, told The New York Times.
Iceland has about 30 active volcanoes, but volcanologists have tried to lessen citizens’ fears of an impending eruption, saying one in Reykjanes won’t really threaten the peninsula’s inhabited areas.
Icelanders should not be concerned, however, given the catastrophic eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010. The event was so intense that it caused one of the main air traffic disruptions. interruptions in decades.
“Of course it worries people,” Þorvaldur Þórðarson, a volcanology professor at the University of Iceland, told CNN. “For this region this is actually quite unusual, not because of the type of earthquakes or their intensity, but because of their duration. It’s been over a week now. “
Experts have said that most of the damage expected from the potentially impending eruption will include damage to the power line, and that the road connecting the capital, Reykjavík, with the airport could be affected.
“The magma composition is very different here, the intensity of explosive activity would be considerably less,” assures Þórðarson.
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