By Lóa Schriefer

The town of Grindavík is 40 minutes outside of the Capital, Reykjavík. It is a small prosperous fishing town with a population of 3,300. It is located only a few minutes away from one of Iceland’s most popular sites, the Blue Lagoon. The town is surrounded by mountains, one of which is called þorbjörn, and the sea. A seismograph (equipment that detects earth movement) showed signs of the land rising around þorbjörn. It has risen an alarming 3cm since January 21! It is believed that this is caused by the build up of magma underneath the mountain or rather the volcano. If a fissure (a large crack in the earth) forms and lava spews out then the entire town will need to be evacuated. The potential threat of ash has caused the Blue Lagoon (which receives around 1,500 visitors a day) and the Airport to be on high alert. The last volcano that erupted in Iceland closed airports in Europe because of the ash that had traveled into the air there. Everyone is closely watching and waiting to see what happens.                                                  

View of þorbjörn from the Blue Lagoon

 

The city of Grindavík