Icelandic authorities are engaged on a plan to guard the evacuated city of Grindavik from a volcanic eruption, Sky Information has been advised.
Scientists at present consider the most probably website for magma to interrupt via the floor is a brief distance from the city, and it may movement in direction of homes.
However Almannavarnir, the Icelandic civil defence, stated earth partitions may very well be constructed to divert a river of molten lava away from the city.
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Jon Thor Viglundsson, from the authority, stated the approach had been examined in current eruptions elsewhere.
“So this we are going to strive,” he stated. “You information lava, you possibly can’t cease it. You push up giant quantities of earth. It is the one approach to make a funnel to show lava away.”
The magma is most probably to erupt between one and 1.5 miles northeast of the city, based on the Icelandic Met Workplace.
However the high-risk zone is on a slope and precisely the place the magma breaks via will decide whether or not the lava flows south in direction of the city or north in direction of an influence station, the place a defensive wall as much as eight metres excessive is already being constructed.
Salome Jorunn Bernhardsdottir, a pure hazards specialist on the Met Workplace, advised Sky Information scientists have been modelling totally different potentialities.
“It is extremely depending on the contours,” she stated. “The movement may go north or south.
“So, what groups have been doing is mapping out totally different eventualities, with totally different movement charges to see how efficient boundaries could be in diverting the movement.”
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The magma is at present believed to be at a depth of round 500m alongside a nine-mile line that passes near Grindavik.
Dr Bernhardsdottir stated the molten rock seems to be cooling and hardening in locations.
However magma continues to construct up within the space the place an eruption is most probably.