Most of us already know that some parts of the world are more prone to earthquakes than others, and that people in those places, such as Southern California, Indonesia, and parts of China, are pretty used to it right now. One such area with occasional tremors is the small island island of Iceland.
There, earthquakes are common because of the country that lies on two of the Earth’s tectonic plates, both the North American plates and the Eurasian plates. They remain divided by an underwater mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which emanates hot molten rocks from the depths of the Earth.
Despite the earthquakes that occurred in Iceland, the country was not prepared for last week’s events, which included 18,000 wonderful earthquakes that hit the island in about a week. The swarm of the earthquake began on February 24 with an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7, the largest so far and was followed by thousands of smaller ones.
“I have experienced earthquakes before, but never so many in a row,” Reykjavik resident Auður Alfa Ólafsdóttir told CNN. “It’s very unusual to feel the Earth shake 24 hours a day for a whole week. It makes you feel very small and powerless against nature.”
What scientists have to say
Geophysicists and volcanologists say the seismic activity on the island has intensified since December 2019, and although volcanoes in southwest Iceland have remained quiet for about 800 years, they said the rest period could finally be over.
Experts say the intense series of earthquakes is the culmination of more than a year of intense seismic activity and that similar tremors have been observed before past volcanic eruptions. The Icelandic Meteorological Office told The New York Times that magma movements were a likely cause of the quakes, and the agency warned that an eruption could occur in a few days or weeks.
“The two tectonic plates move away from each other and this movement created the conditions for the magma to come to the surface,” Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, told the New York Times.
Iceland has about 30 active volcanoes, but volcanologists have tried to ease residents’ fears of an impending eruption, saying one of the Reykjanes will not actually threaten inhabited areas of the peninsula.
Icelanders cannot be blamed for worrying, however, given the catastrophic eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010. The release of large black ash feathers into the sky, the event was so intense that it caused one of the most significant air traffic disruptions in decades.
“Of course it worries people,” Þorvaldur Þórðarson, a professor of volcanology 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 going on for over a week now. “
Experts said most of the damage expected from the possible imminent eruption includes damage to the power line and that the road linking the capital, Reykjavík, to the airport could be affected.
“The magmatic composition here is very different, the intensity of the explosive activity would be significantly lower,” Þórðarson said.
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