(Reykjavik) The volcanic eruption further lost intensity on Wednesday in Iceland where the population of the capital Reykjavik resumed their daily life in serenity before “the force of nature”.
“The power of the eruption has decreased over time, as has the seismicity and deformation” of the ground, wrote the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO) in an update at 11:53 a.m. (5:53 a.m. local time). ‘East).
“On the latest surveillance photos, the activity is now limited to two craters, whereas previously there were three, southeast of Stóra-Skógafell,” he adds.
The new eruption that occurred Monday evening along a four-kilometer fault southwest of Reykjavik largely lit up the Icelandic sky for 24 hours with jets of bright orange lava surrounded by clouds of red smoke.
These flows continued on Wednesday, but in much more modest proportions, under very cloudy skies, according to images from surveillance cameras.
This new eruption, the fourth in two years, took place three kilometers from a town of 4,000 inhabitants, Grindavik, evacuated since November 11 after the declaration of a state of emergency in the region following a significant accumulation of magma.
“Everyone is excited, but also very calm. We are used to it. You know, it’s Iceland, its powerful nature,” reacts Anna Dora, a 60-year-old trader in Reykjavik, the capital located about forty kilometers northeast of the eruption.
Arnar Flokason, 37, works at the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which is two kilometers west of the eruption and provides electricity and water to around 30,000 residents in the region.
“I’m close (to the rash), but it’s OK. It was big at the beginning, but now it’s small, I’m not worried,” said the father met in front of a school in the capital.
For Helga Gudjonsdottir, a 33-year-old employee, “this is something that will continue to happen in the years to come. This will probably become normalized for us and we will have to live with it.”
“It’s still going to be a tourist attraction.” We hope that this will boost the economy,” adds Lukasz Wrobel, originally from Poland and who has lived in Iceland for six years where he manages a store.
Until the March 2021 eruption, the Reykjanes Peninsula, south of the capital Reykjavik, had been spared from eruptions for eight centuries.
Since then, there have been three others, in August 2022 and July 2023 and this Monday evening, a sign, for volcanologists, of a resumption of volcanic activity in the region.
According to volcanologists, the new cycle in the peninsula could last decades.