Volcanic Eruptions Force Popular Icelandic Town To Evacuate. Again.

Poor Grindavik. This small Icelandic town has been assaulted with one volcanic eruption after another. Unfortunately, it is happening again.

Early Wednesday morning, yet another volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula decided it was time to pop off after an 800-year slumber, spewing molten rock across southwestern Iceland.

The eruption began around 4 a.m. with a “seismic swarm.” While that sounds like something a multiplayer game character would say when they fire off their special power, it’s actually just  geologist-speak that in English roughly translates to “a buncha earthquakes.”

This latest flare-up forced about 100 people in the town of Grindavik to evacuate, along with a scattering of unlucky tourists and spa-goers soaking in the nearby Blue Lagoon. If you were mid-mud-mask or soaking in milky turquoise waters, your zen moment got swiftly hijacked by an encroaching flow of magma.

Iceland Volcanic Eruption Forces Evacuation of Beloved Town

Local police commissioner Margrét Kristín Pálsdóttir somehow remained calm when confronted by locals who questioned the need to evacuate. Probably because this had happened so often in the past couple of years that they had become jaded to the Earth violently spewing molten lava at their homes and businesses. The entire evacuation process took around 90 minutes without panic or disarray, probably because these people are familiar with the procedure by now.

The Icelandic Met Office confirmed that lava was flowing southeast from a newly formed fissure, about 700 to 1,000 meters long. Fortunately, no major infrastructure is currently threatened; only some spa reservations have been canceled. So far, it’s more of a scenic volcanic eruption than a catastrophic one.

Since November 2023, the region has been experiencing a geological upheaval due to a long-dormant volcanic system that has finally awakened. If you’re heading to Iceland this summer, maybe check the volcano forecast with your weather app and apply your SPF 5,000.