Still waiting …

Still waiting to see when and where (and if) the large magma movement underneath the Reykjanes Peninsula will erupt. Earthquakes have decreased overnight, which may be a sign the magma has found an easy route to the surface and the eruption is imminent. Or it could also be that the movement has stalled and the magma will not reach the surface. And to make things more complicated, there has been a series of earthquakes just offshore. The problem is that the route of the magma takes it directly under the town of Grindavik, which was rapidly evacuated over the weekend …

I’m impressed at how this has been handled by Icelandic authorities, as well as how the people in the hazard zone are reacting. Grindavik is roughly the same population and size as Tybee Island (~3000 people), off of Savannah Georgia. I can’t imagine evacuating Tybee as quickly or completely as was done in Grindavick.

There are several live stream cameras pointed at Grindavik (link), where the eruption is feared, and the update blog from RUV TV is useful to keep up with events (link). Hopefully we will have an answer to the when, where, and if soon so the people of southwest Iceland (and their sheep) can get back to their lives.

Speaking of Tybee, no, they don’t need to start planning an evacuation from the dreaded Orange Blob on the latest long range NHC outlook. While the global models do try to spin up something before the disturbance moves across Cuba, Hispaniola, and the southern Bahamas, it should move rapidly northeast and out to sea. No warnings, not even tagged as an invest area yet as of Monday morning.