Fissures in Grindavík widened after a volcanic eruption at the Sundhnúkur crater row yesterday. Experts say the expansion was far less significant than the 1.4-meter shift recorded in January 2024.
Believed to have caused a fire in a utility box
Ground fissures in Grindavík saw additional widening following the volcanic eruption at the Sundhnúkur crater row yesterday.
“Ground fissures widened by several centimetres within Grindavík,” Benedikt G. Ófeigsson, deformation monitoring specialist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, stated in an interview with Morgunblaðið published this morning. The widening is believed to have sparked a fire in a utility box above Víðihlíð in Grindavík, occurring around the same time the eruption began.
Benedikt explained that there had been considerable movement along the fissures in Grindavík. “This could be around ten centimetres or slightly less,” he stated, clarifying that this is considerably less significant than the deformation observed in January 2024, when a volcanic fissure opened within the town limits.
At that time, Grindavík shifted by 1.4 metres within a single day. Benedikt also noted that in the lead-up to previous eruptions, seismic activity had usually dropped off as soon as an eruption began. But not this time. “There hasn’t been this much activity since November 10, 2023,” Benedikt observed, referring to when Grindavík was first evacuated. “During this latest event, the eruption was quite small. It appears to have been too small to relieve any pressure.”
Eruptions since November 2023 have occurred along the same fissure.
According to Benedikt, less than ten hours after the eruption began, the eruption fissure appeared to have closed. However, volcanic activity remained steady and moved farther north—surprisingly far, in fact—suggesting that the magma intrusion has extended in that direction. “But it simply hasn’t released the tension. That’s likely why we’re seeing more activity toward the northern end as magma moves in that direction.”
