The site of the ongoing eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula is closed to visitors today. Suðurnes Police announced the closure on their Facebook page this morning. The reason for the closure are ongoing modifications to the hiking path, which should make the site more accessible to visitors.
Jón Haukur Steingrímsson, a geotechnical engineer at Efla, who is working on improvements to the eruption site stated that there had been two to three cases of broken ankles or other serious injures at the site daily in recent weeks. “There are a lot of people there who are just relatively inexperienced hikers, who are going there. As we enter the summer and we start getting tourists it’s only going to increase more,” Jón Haukur told Vísir. Some modifications were made to the path last week to make it less steep, and there is a plan to shorten the hiking path as well by creating a new parking lot closer to the eruption site.
Read More: Plans for Parking Lots, Paths, and Park Wardens at Erupton Site
Over 87,000 have visited the Geldingadalir eruption since it began on March 19. While the site will be closed to visitors today, interested readers can watch several live streams of the eruption online.
