Volcanoes are also deconfigured in Iceland, and it may make more noise than your neighbor pianist happy to have finally been able to buy new sheet music on May 11. The Grímsvötn volcano, the most active on the boreal island, is preparing for its next eruption, the first since 2011, authorities said. Particularly high sulfur dioxide levels have been recorded, indicating the presence of magma at shallow depths.
If the Eyjafjöll volcano eruption in 2010 had caused the formation of a huge cloud of smoke and caused chaos in the European sky for a month, with more than 100,000 canceled flights and eight million passengers stranded, the risks, this time , are considered weaker.
A fairly brutal awakening anyway
However, the Grímsvötn's awakening in 2011 had nevertheless led to the cancellation of some 900 flights, the ashes having reached the United Kingdom and the outskirts of the European continent. A subglacial volcano, its eruption also triggers floods linked to the melting of the ice covering it.
On the north coast this time, three earthquakes greater than 5 on the current magnitude scale have been recorded in recent days. One of them was felt as far as Reykjavík, the capital, located 265 km away.
Will you take a little volcano back?
According to the Meteorological Institute of Iceland, the epicenter of this seismic "swarm", which should continue over the next few days, is 20 kilometers off Siglufjördur, a small village of some 1,200 souls on the north Icelandic coast. . And a few dozen kilometers from Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland with nearly 20,000 inhabitants.
No injuries or major damage have yet been reported - only landslides and falling rocks have been observed near the epicenter. The region is regularly shaken by earthquakes: located on the Tjörnes fracture zone, this geologically active fault is composed of a series of moving tectonic and volcanic zones.
These events occur when part of the country was already under surveillance: since January, a series of earthquakes has shaken the surroundings of Grindavik, not far from the steaming waters of the tourist "Blue Lagoon" in the Reykjanes peninsula (southwest ).
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