Imminent Threat: The Quaking Grounds of Grindavik
My feet are planted either side of a jagged crack, zig-zagging along the tarmac. Here it is quite narrow, but further along the road, it becomes a gaping, 12ft-wide chasm, and when I gaze into the steaming black void, it seems I can see the very bowels of the Earth.
Nature’s Fury Unleashed
Some 500 yards beneath here, there lies a scalding river of molten lava with many tortuous tributaries. For centuries it has lain benignly in the planet’s core, but in recent weeks it has been rising inexorably.
As you read this, it is trying to summon the energy and find the subterranean pathways that will facilitate its final thrust through the surface.
A Town Frozen in Time
And if, heaven forbid, this seething torrent bursts forth — as many experts fear it soon will — the remote fishing port of Grindavik, on Iceland’s south-west coast, will go the way of Pompeii, Tiwanaku, and those other volcano-obliterated relics of ancient history.
From Bustling Town to Eerie Silence
As of now, this quaint little outpost remains a ghost town. It has been this way since Friday when a terrifying earthquake struck, forcing the emergency evacuation of its 4,000 residents. Entering Grindavik yesterday under a police escort was a strange and unnerving experience.
The Aftermath: A Town Divided
Leaving the final checkpoint, we drove through an eerie moonscape of low, lichen-covered hillocks and craters formed by the last big eruption here, 2,400 years ago.
The land is treeless and dark, punctuated by bubbling grey cauldrons belching out steam. But the biggest plume, like that of a bygone railway engine, billows from a huge geothermal power plant.
Race Against Time
Workers are racing against time to surround it with a wall that might protect it from the threatened lava surge. Reaching the edge of town, we passed by deserted fish-salting factories, empty playgrounds, abandoned houses, and cars.
Chronicles of Survival: Voices from Grindavik
It was as if all the clocks had stopped here on Friday evening when the alert sounded, giving people a few minutes to grab their essentials before they fled for their lives.
Grindavik resident Gudrun Eyjolfsdottir, 50, who had just returned home from work in the capital, Reykjavik, eloquently described how it felt.
Torn Apart: The Red Zone
However, it was only when I entered the Red Zone — the now fenced-off area in the town center which suffered the worst destruction — that I grasped the fear they must have endured. Here, Grindavik has literally been torn in half, for one of the main roads through the town runs above a fault line deep in the Earth’s crust.
Uncertain Futures: Grindavik’s Struggle for Normalcy
Not only has it been split asunder, it has dropped 3 ft so that it now resembles the edge of a treacherous precipice.
Weirdly, the deepest and widest trench has opened directly over a zebra crossing: a usually safe pathway taken by children who attend the kindergarten just 400 yards away, and congregants at a handsome nearby church.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Had they been walking to school when the Earth opened, they would surely have been swallowed up or scalded. That it was ripped apart late in the afternoon, when the school had closed, is a small mercy to which the locals — resilient folk who call themselves ‘Grindvikings’ — are clinging.
The Long Road Ahead
As dusk fell, the young police officer ushered me back to the Land Cruiser. Even as we spoke, he said gravely, the pavement was slowly continuing to slip, lowering by a few inches each day. It was time to leave.
Looking back at the steaming crevice, I asked him whether, even if the fissure volcano that was spreading its tentacles beneath us didn’t erupt imminently, anyone could confidently return to live here again.
Balancing Hope and Reality
He gave an uncertain yet optimistic reply. However, back in the capital, an expert volcanologist offered a more realistic view, saying it would take very many years of geological calmness before anyone could exclude the possibility of an eruption.
So, the benighted Grindvikings are caught between a malevolent rock and a hard place. As they fall on the charity of family members, friends, and a good many strangers who have rehoused them, they will need all their stoicism to come through.