Iceland: President Gudni Johannesson urges ‘keep hope alive’ after new volcanic eruption

His rare words indicate the seriousness of the situation. Speaking to the Icelandic population on public television, President Gudni Jóhannesson said Icelanders must “keep hope alive” after a new volcanic eruption this Sunday destroyed houses in the town of Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik. In this locality, three houses were damaged, the population of which was evacuated several hours earlier. “We hope that everything will calm down and that everyone will be able to return, but (…) anything is possible,” continued Gudni Johannesson.

According to him, “all our plans for the future must take into account that the Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a period of turmoil”, affected by the volcanic eruption in the southwest of the country. This eruption is the fifth in Iceland in almost three years, the previous one occurring on the evening of December 18 in the same area. But the lava did not reach homes for 51 years, Gudni Johannesson recalled in his address to the nation.

Evacuation at night

Seismic activity intensified significantly overnight, and several dozen residents who were resettled in late December in this small town, located about forty kilometers southwest of Reykjavik, were evacuated around 3 a.m. local time (4 a.m. Paris time). Then two fissures opened, one around 8 a.m. about 400 meters from the city and another at midday on the edge of the first houses, spewing large streams of bright orange lava, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO).

The first two houses were hit by burning lava in the middle of the day and immediately caught fire, releasing large plumes of black smoke, according to CCTV images broadcast by Iceland’s public television. Then the third house burned down.

“In such a small town we all know each other like family, so to see this is tragic,” reacted Sveinn Ari Gudjonsson, 55, a Grindavik resident who was evacuated in November. “This is unreal. It’s like watching a movie,” adds a man who works in the fishing industry.

Speaking at a press conference, Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir lamented “a dark day for Grindavik and for all of Iceland.” “But the sun will rise again,” she promised. “Together we will overcome this trauma.”

Houses destroyed by earthquakes

Grindavik, which has a population of 4,000, was evacuated on November 11 as a precaution after hundreds of earthquakes caused by the movement of magma under the earth’s crust – a precursor to a volcanic eruption. These earthquakes damaged the city, creating large cracks in roads, homes and public buildings.

Shortly after the eruption on December 18, residents were allowed to return to Grindavik briefly and then permanently from December 23, after which they were quickly evacuated on the night of Saturday to Sunday. Only a few dozen residents returned to their homes. On Saturday night, authorities ordered the city to be evacuated by Monday due to seismic activity and its impact on pre-existing cracks in the city. So they had to pick up the pace during the night.

The decision follows the disappearance on Wednesday of a 51-year-old Icelander who was working in a private garden when the ground suddenly gave way from under his feet. The man, who was not found, fell more than thirty meters into the crevasse,” Gudni Johannesson said in her address on this occasion.

Before the March 2021 eruption, the Reykjanes Peninsula, south of the capital Reykjavik, had been free of eruptions for eight centuries. There were four more: in August 2022 and July 2023, on December 18, 2023 and this Sunday morning, which for volcanologists is a sign of renewed volcanic activity in the region.

Four days after the Dec. 18 eruption, authorities said volcanic activity had stopped, but were unable to say whether the eruption had ended because of possible lava flows underground. Thirty-three volcanic systems are considered active in this land of fire and ice, Europe’s most volcanic region.