Recently, I booked a trip to Iceland to see the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis. Following that booking, the Earth began to shake like crazy with little breaks below the land around Grindavik, Iceland. Then, it subsided. The Blue Lagoon actually opened for a couple days. People who'd evacuated from Grindavik were going to be allowed to return. Some of them had already been working their jobs in the town and commuting back and forth from Reykjavik.
Well, The fissure in the area has now opened up. It's approximately 3.5 kilometers long and oozing magma. The Blue Lagoon is closed again, and it doesn't look as though the residents of Grindavik will be returning home for Christmas. Such is the way of things in one of the world's youngest and most active countries.
Will this activity stop me from traveling to the island country in the middle of winter to see the northern lights? We'll see. So far, it's small. Measure how long 3.5 kilometers actually is. It's not that far. I walk farther than that on my daily walk. A lot farther. So far, the fissure, not a full fledged volcano, isn't threatening any activities around the airport in Keflavik, so I'm not too worried.
The fissure has formations in its path that will stop the current level of flowing magma so that it will be contained in the small area where it currently is oozing and may even get it to flow toward the sea to the south. Don't know. No one truly does. This is life in Iceland.
The Reykjanes Peninsula is where you'll find this overactive fissure. It extends from Reykjavik southwest and the Keflavik International Airport is on the west end of the peninsula. The fissure is in the south, and so far is contained there. So far, in Iceland, this is not a problem for the people who don't live in the immediate vicinity.
Will it stay that way? I don't know.
Let me tell you something about Iceland. My upcoming trip isn't my first to the land of fire and ice. If you ever wanted to know where Mother Nature lives, I would say Iceland. The whole land is alive. The country is heated by volcanic power. The country's 300 or so swimming complexes as well as almost everyone's home is heated by this power. There are over 200 waterfalls in the country, and some of them are used for hydroelectric purposes. Glacier melt provides the country's fresh water. There's actually a glacier on top of a live volcano, so large that a few decades ago, the volcano erupted and it only melted enough of that glacier to make a mess. That's a big glacier.
Iceland is that place where it's dark in winter and light in summer. It rains sideways and the surf can be frightening. There's a river in Thingvellir National Park where you can see the continental rift at the bottom. There are 32 active volcanoes. The island is made of them. There's over 250 named glaciers. There are so many waterfalls that no one knows how many there are. Some estimates are as high as 10,000. The northern lights are visible over 200 days a year.
Iceland is alive. If you plan to travel there, you should be acutely aware of that and prepared for what may come. The Blue Lagoon is the thermal spa of volcanic origin and one of the largest tourist attractions in the country. It's closed now, because a fissure opened up down the road. It happens. Will it be safe to travel to Iceland in January? Probably. People have lived there for hundreds and hundreds of years. They're fine.
I feel for the people of Grindavik. I can't imagine what it's like to have to pick up and leave your home because the land up the road is erupting. I hope it calms down and they can all return home soon.
The one thing that I wanted to point out with this post was that in Iceland these things happen. It isn't scary. It normally isn't catastrophic. It's more or less inconvenient. Unless something far worse happens, tourism in Iceland is going to continue. There's normally magma somewhere around the country. This one just happened to make the headlines. Volcanologists monitor the country constantly. They try to predict the activity, but Mother Nature can be unpredictable.
May the magma slow down and stop soon.
Please don't count out Iceland as a place where you can visit, see amazing nature and enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/@JustIcelandic
https://old.icelandnaturally.com/
https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/volcanic-eruptions//
https://www.flyplay.com/en?origin=SWF
