Wall of Fire

Deep North: Stories from Iceland

In early November, when it became clear that magma was collecting below Svartsengi, the government approved the building of lava barriers on the Reykjanes peninsula to protect crucial infrastructure. On January 14, not even four weeks after the last volcanic eruption – the earth began trembling again and opened up once more, this time just meters away from Grindavík. On February 8, the third eruption within three months occurred close to Sýlingarfell and subsided after only one day. We spoke to civil engineer Ari Guðmundsson, who was planning the construction of the lava barriers. Have they succeeded in their mission?