A “seismic flow” with a series of earthquakes led to a mass exodus of tourists from the famous resort. In Iceland, the most famous geothermal resort “Blue Lagoon” was closed for safety reasons – the reason for this is that at least 1,400 earthquakes have occurred on the Reykjanes peninsula since Wednesday.
The Messenger news outlet adds that, as researchers have clarified, all these earthquakes are part of a larger seismic flow that began on October 25. According to instrument data, about 22,000 earthquakes have occurred in southwestern Iceland in recent weeks, but not all of them are felt by humans.
Tourists got the biggest scare: According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the largest earthquake on Wednesday night had a magnitude of 4.8, the strongest since the start of the seismic swarm. As a result, at least 40 frightened tourists left the Blue Lagoon, and stones fell on the roads to the resort. The resort announced it will temporarily close its doors Thursday with an expected reopening date of Nov. 16.
However, there is a risk that tourists will be scared away not even by the “seismic swarm” itself, but by the associated prospect of a volcanic eruption. So far, no “attempts” of volcanoes to erupt have been recorded during the earthquakes, but the country that once paralyzed all flights in Europe with the famous eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, literally “lives like a volcano” in this sense. Especially since there are as many as 32 active volcanoes on the island.