Brazilian woman shares what it’s like to live in a town in Iceland threatened by a volcano: ‘Earthquakes every 3 minutes’
The Fantástico team was the only one allowed to enter Grindavik, Iceland, after the impending awakening of a volcano after 800 years. The city was split in half by the earthquakes, which have not yet stopped.
Correspondents Felipe Santana and Alex Carvalho met a Brazilian woman who is pregnant and had to leave her own home.
1 of 2 Jessica and her husband Issac live in Grindavik, Iceland, a town that had to be evacuated due to a volcano. — Photo: Reproduction/Fantastic Jessica and her husband Issac live in Grindavik, Iceland, a town that had to be evacuated due to a volcano. — Photo: Reproduction/Fantastic
“The earthquakes were happening, I don’t know, every five minutes. Every three minutes. It didn’t stop. It didn’t stop,” says Jéssica, a Brazilian woman who is pregnant and about to give birth.
Jessica and her husband Issac live in Grindavik, Iceland, a town that had to be evacuated due to a volcano. She earned a living in the countryside at the luxury resort Blue Lagoon, where she initially worked as a cleaner before becoming a chef. But when he bought the house four years ago, he never imagined he would experience what he is experiencing now: an impending eruption.
“We knew [que tinha o vulcão]“But having been an inactive volcano in this area for 800 years, we never thought it would just erupt when we decided to buy a house there in Grindavik,” he reports.
The fishing village has 3,000 inhabitants and is located in the southeast of the country. Next door is the dormant volcano Fragadasfallbut as soon as Jessica moved, the giant woke up.
“This is the most incredible thing in my life. It’s very hot here,” she says in a video.
Since they moved, the volcano has erupted every year, but always in a controlled manner and without lava flowing into the city. However, two weeks ago the situation changed. “People began to feel kicks from the interior of the earth,” says the Brazilian.
“Guys, it’s such an earthquake. It does not stop. We packed things and took everything with us to set off. We’re packing everything into the car now. We’re leaving,” the Brazilian continues, crying.
Now Jéssica doesn’t know if and when she can return home. She and Isaac live in a borrowed apartment in the Icelandic capital.
“Now I have to cry because I can’t see anything. (…) I want to go home,” he says.
The Brazilian talks about the feeling of insecurity. “We want the volcano to erupt now because even if it destroys our house, at least we know what will happen. Now, at this moment, we live in limbo,” he explains.
2 of 2 Reporter Felipe Santana shows a crater in a town in Iceland. — Photo: Reproduction/Globo Repórter Felipe Santana shows a crater in a town in Iceland. — Photo: Reproduction/Globo
In the city center you can see a large crater that has opened up on the main street. This causes smoke to come out of hot water.
The city could explode at any moment, but authorities assured that they could predict this at least 30 minutes in advance.
Another crater has cut a flower bed in half, and it’s not even possible to see the bottom of it. A crack runs through the entire city. It hit a yard and pierced the entire house.
Scientific explanation for the phenomenon
The interior of the Earth is a large ball of fire. Tectonic plates are large blocks of rock that make up the Earth’s crust, and Iceland is an island right between two of these plates, which are constantly moving apart very slowly.
In Iceland you can see why there are so many volcanoes in the region. A rift shows the separation between the European continental tectonic plate and the North American continental plate. And they move further and further away.
The Icelandic Meteorological Center has determined that there is a pulsating vein of lava on the surface that runs through the entire Reykjanes Peninsula, where Grindavik is located. It is this movement that causes the earth to shake and heave. In other words: This time the lava should not spray out of a volcanic cone, but in the form of a large fissure.
Due to this volcanic activity, boiling water is pouring out of the earth in many places in Iceland. However, in strong winds and cold temperatures, it evaporates as soon as it comes into contact with the air.
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