https://youtu.be/xvlZOpZE2KE?si=c2_Ew7LDKHrEpoN9

TLDR; Grindavík is located in Iceland, a country known for its volcanic activity. Earthquakes and land deformation have exploded in frequency in the area under and around the small town of 4,000 people and geologists expect a volcanic eruption is imminent. The town has been evacuated.

That's not strictly the case. For example, Akureyri has some international flights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akureyri_Airport

Keflavík is obviously the only major international airport in Iceland though.

A while back I remember hearing a proposal about expanding the airport in Egilsstaðir to be capable of replacing Keflavík if (when?) it is disrupted by lava flow. I think it proved too expensive for much action to be taken though. It would be interesting logistically to see what would happen if Keflavík was knocked out of service.

I actually see Tampa International this way. Its literally on the coast, and just barely missed near two near Cat-5 hurricanes in two years. And that risk is not shrinking.

Lava flows came very close to Goma airport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjav%C3%ADk_Airport

By far, the best source about what's going on in Grindavik I've found is just the Icelandic Meteorological Office website: https://en.vedur.is/ (English version, which is quite good). That in combination with some residents of Iceland that post shorter updates the keeps close to the reported local news seems to be the best.

https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-11-10-liveblog-reykjanes-pen...

No signs of an actual eruption yet though on the cameras (the steam is a geothermal power station): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=804nPrAUAxg

With all the "Lava & Eruption!" hype around this situation, that would make what is actually happening now in Grindavík much clearer.

Is it really the right place for it, though? HN is not CNN; if you want that sort of news there are probably better sources.

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

And if the current situation is "nothing special happening", then let's not waste any good hacker's time with a pretty-ambiguous headline.

[1] https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2023-11-14-ryma-grindavik...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Iceland

When the flag turned out to be Polish I had to turn to the Woodchuck Book and was surprised, just like you. I should have mentioned it. Thanks for the link.

https://youtu.be/kjg-1BemSOo?si=H_We-hOXtCHT3Wgc

The eruption in Hawai some years ago also destroyed a town and a harbor.

I know that most of the big ones are north east (near the international airport in Keflavík).

They were really popular for crypto miners, but have been moving into HPC very rapidly. I’d assume there is a ton of extremely expensive equipment less than 10-15 miles from where all this activity is.

I know, they are doing it to inform people that they shouldn't go there but it gives it such a post apocalyptic vibe.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenoom,_Western_Australia

Culturally, its because American's won't read a sign and follow the instructions if we can still "do" it. You have to physically block us, and its too expensive to change all the signs.

Not much really happens, all everybody knows is that doom is imminent. The movies are mainly about how the different characters handle this situation.

That said, I am still waiting for a movie that just suddenly ends with a car crash where the main protagonist dies, fully unrelated to the story.

I looked at a few books on this list, but not every book seems to really be about pre-apocalypse. Pre-Apocalyptic fictions sounds like literary edging :D

Pavers would seem to me to be both more expensive to install and require higher maintenance. Is there a reason they are used so much?

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving

Humped a few of them in my time...thank goodness for Atari, and all that followed.!!

See for example: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EImO4agHqOg

It's not that unusual a precaution.

(Though yes, as a sibling commenter notes, we do have to deal with them getting taken down by wind, lightning, and the occasional hapless driver from time to time. There's no perfect solution.)

A statistic I remember from when I lived there is that Connecticut has more trees per mile of powerline than any other state. Every time there was an ice storm, thousands of people lost power.

[1] https://ruv-vod-clips.akamaized.net/76a26e8d-1190-492c-9163-...

I usually go a new place everytime but I simply couldn't get enough of it just once and had to go again ASAP.

Hopefully this situation turns out better than the worse predictions.

It is as close to magic as anywhere I've been, and their New Year celebration is insanity.

Also, if you'd enjoy seeing the Aurora Borealis, know that due to weather, clouds, etc., it isn't very reliable, and it may be best to plan on multiple attempts at it. The experiences we had ranged from disappointing to terrifically amazing, but if we'd only gone the one time, we'd have left without having experienced it.

They blew my mind, best hot dog i've ever had. Even ordered some directly from Iceland after coming back with all the toppings.

Does anyone know what the "traditional" response to these sorts of ground movements was?

The 1783 Laki eruption comes to my mind. Back then, a 25km long fissure with 130 vents opened. About 14km3 of lava and 1km3 of tephra was emitted. Lava fountains were estimated to have reached between 800m and 1400m.

Some 20-25% of the population died, 50% of cattle and 50% of the horse population perished.

It is argued that this eruption was the catalyst for the French Revolution, as the amount of emitted gasses caused extreme weather patterns across Europe (and the world) throughout the 1780s leading to famine, diseases and social unrest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki

In contemporary times, there's the 1973 eruption of Eldfell on the island of Heimaey. It destroyed some 400 homes and led to a temporary evacuation of some 5.300 inhabitants. By 1975, some 80% of the population had returned. Moreover, today it's the foremost fishing center of Island with over 1/3rd of the total fish catch originating from its harbor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldfell

I looked this up, and found this: "In his introduction to the translation Guðmundur E. Sigvaldson classifies Jón’s Eldritið as a “scientific classic as well is a literary jewel.” [0]

It chronicles the aftermath of the eruption in some detail (i.e. people did not flee the region, for some reason....), e.g.:

>The poisonous compounds leaked out of the Laki craters caused, as Jón depicts so graphically, the skin to rot off the spines of horses, swelling in their heads, jaws, and joints, rotting insides, and shrinking bones. The sheep and cattle suffered similarly. The meat from these animals was “both foul-smelling and bitter and full of poison, so that many a person died as a result of eating it” (Fires of the Earth, 76).

[0] https://www.medievalist.com/articles/strongjn-versus-the-vol...

Of course they had to come back to “home island”.

https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/news/volcano-watch-wh...

The very old tradition was to increase the amounts of sacrifices to the gods, because clearly they were angry.

And I was not necessarily talking about human sacrifice, even though it seems very likely, that this happened as well.

https://scandinaviafacts.com/did-the-vikings-perform-human-s...

https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes

I haven't explored the site enough to see if they have downloadable datasets, however.

Edit: I see that it looks like they have but residents will be allowed in to retrieve belongings. Is there any chance that an eruption comes in the form of a large scale collapse above the magma chamber…or is that not plausible?

When the volcano blows, it should only be property, building, and road damage.

Property and infrastructure damage is not the only outcome here. We could end up with ash fallout and flight disruptions. There's also a major power station in the immediate risk zone, which is a major loss if it gets destroyed.

If and when this blows up, it's going to be big. The question is just if it's big and causes fallout, or just big. And when we're talking about property damage, it's less damage and more "will the town be obliterated or not". The magma is most shallow under the town, and there's a 15 kilometer magma pipe extending to the ocean. So the possibility of the eruption happening in Grindavik itself is also very real.

> In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines, the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulting in what at the time was the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II.

> On 16 April 2010, 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily scheduled passenger flights were cancelled and on the following day 16,000 of the usual 22,000 flights were cancelled. By 21 April 95,000 flights had been cancelled.

> IATA stated that the total loss for the airline industry was around US$1.7 billion (£1.1 billion, €1.3 billion).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_travel_disruption_after_th...

But the effect would be very similar. The water would vaporize and create an aerosol of ash.

Mind you, those roads in Iceland might be expensive, with luxurious built-in heating. ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmelt_system

People had the option to get their animals, but not everyone did so. If the eruption destroys the town some animals will be among the casualties, if they haven't starved etc. already.

Now it seems there will be an eruption on the same fissure again, but a) there are many more earthquakes than before, b) the detected movement of magma is far larger, and c) it could erupt anywhere on a 15km fissure line, but right now it seems to do so right in the middle of the nearby town. So it looks like this time it will be a disaster.

There is also a geothermal power plant that heats the whole peninsula nearby, as well as tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon, that are both at risk.

https://twitter.com/search?q=grindavik&f=live

and it's pretty clean. You'll occasionally see the famous drone video from the 2021 eruption being touted as what's happening in Gridavik right now.