Watch Iceland volcano update: Eruption could happen with just 30 minutes warning – Latest World News

Over 1000 earthquakes have struck in the region of the magma intrusion within the last 24 hours, reported the Icelandic Met Office.

The largest quake was magnitude 2.7 near to Hagafell, said the IMO.

In recent days, between 1,500 and 1,800 daily earthquakes have been measured in the region, with the largest event registering magnitude 3.0 last Friday

Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates move apart at about 2cm a year, Tamsin Mathers a Oxford University professor in Earth sciences told the Independent.

She wrote in the Conversation: “In the Earth’s mantle below ground, where rocks behave like very stiff toffee, the plates can extend continuously.

“But near the surface, the rocks of Earth’s crust are cold and brittle, and they can only stretch by breaking.

“Like pulling the ends of a chocolate bar with a soft interior but a hard shell, the build-up of strain as the plates pull apart is released in bursts as the coating breaks.”

As the plates move apart, both sides move upwards leading to ground defamation (sinking) in some places and rising in other places.

The Icelandic Met Office has warned of “significant crustal uplift” in the area of Svartseng.

The review of the images by experts comes as Iceland has been recording between 1,500 and 1,800 daily earthquakes in recent days.

As an imminent eruption looms thousands of Iceland residents await their fate as their town could be wiped out within days.

Some 3,400 residents from the town of Grindavik which lies on the path of the expected fissure vent eruption were forced to evacuate, they described the ‘apocalyptic’ scenes of their much-loved home town as they briefly returned to collect their belongings.

Experts have revealed the likely eruption site of a volcano in Iceland, as authorities warn evacuees they may not return home for months.

The forecaster said magmatic gas has been detected at a borehole in Svartsengi, signalling an imminent eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano over the coming days.

“Hagafell is thought to be a prime location for an eruption,” the forecaster said.

Authorities in Iceland have ordered the construction of two giant walls to protect a power plant in the event of an imminent volcanic eruption as they fear the situation could change with “little warning”.

One wall was made 26ft high to fortify the Svartsengi power plant, while construction for another 2.4-mile semi-circle wall was underway just above the small town of Grindavik.

Vidir Reynisson, chief of civil protection and emergency management, told The Mirror that their biggest challenge was to save the power plant from the lava.

“We have plans for the electricity but still there is a lot of challenge around the hot water,” he said.

“If we were to put electric heaters in all the homes in the area we would drain the power system just for that.”

The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) on Monday updated its hazard assessment map for the area of Grindavik and Svartsengi based on satellite images.

The danger zone compared to the previous maps has been expanded to include three broad categories.

A very high danger zone measuring about 2-3km across is marked in purple, while the area around it in red denotes high risk and yellow is moderate.

The highest risk zone in the centre of the 15km-long rift is marked with a dashed red line.

As an imminent eruption looms thousands of Iceland residents await their fate as their town could be wiped out within days.

Thousands of earthquakes rocked the southwestern peninsula of Reykjanes on Saturday 11 November leading semi-molten rock to ravage below the surface as the tremors caused a 15km long dyke to form, cracking the community in two as the ground was pushed upwards.

The whole population waits in limbo as they fear the fate of their close-knit community, many have already lost their homes whilst others do not know if their residencies still stand as earthquakes have continued to strike.