Iceland volcano latest updates today: Eruption could happen within 30 minutes

Just 165 earthquakes, all below magnitude 2 on the Richter scale, were recorded on Tuesday ahead of the anticipated volcanic eruption, the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said.

This is considerably fewer than in the last few days when 1,500-1,800 earthquakes were recorded per day.

However, officials said this did not necessarily mean that seismic activity had reduced.

“It can be expected that the intense weather passing over the country has an impact on the sensitivity of the seismic monitoring system to detect the smallest earthquakes, making it difficult to assess whether the seismic activity is decreasing overall,” the Met Office said.

Iceland watches on helplessly as rescue workers escorting locals back to the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik say it is “now a waiting game” before an eruption.

Gripped viewers are glued to state broadcaster RUV as it plays a live stream of the glowing crater with modern Icelandic electronic music underneath as the countdown continued on Tuesday.

It comes as 1,200 households scramble to grab as many “heartfelt” objects as they can under observation from rescue teams from the town above the volatile Reykjanes Peninsula.

The police checkpoint lies 25km (15.5 miles) away from the town but only 12km (7.5 miles) from cracks starting to form across the roads and stretching far into the mountains.

Barney Davis reports from Rejkavik.

The land near the Svartsengi power plant is now rising even faster than it did prior to the subterranean events which led to huge cracks appearing in the ground there earlier this month, a volcanologist has said.

Land swelling is common prior to volcanic eruptions, and Professor Thorvaldur Thordarson said the ground is now rising some 5.5 times faster than it did 10 days ago, with the flow of magma into the storage chamber – which sits 4.5km below the surface – now around 10 times faster, at around 50 cubic metres per second.

“The land is rising much faster now. This happens simultaneously because the magma is creating space and thus raising the surface of the earth,” Professor Thordarson told Iceland Monitor.

If this speed continues, the volcanologist believes the Svartsengi power plant will have reached its previous position in five to 15 days.

“What happens then, it’s hard to tell,” he said. “We might get an eruption, we might have a re-run of the activitites that happened on 10 November or just something completely new.”

Residents from a small Icelandic town under threat from a volcanic eruption have described their ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they fear for their future.

Last Friday, thousands of Grindavik residents were ordered to leave as the town was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes. The small fishing town is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is home to the famous tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon.

Many have been unable to return to the ‘danger zone’ to collect their belongings, as earthquakes continue to strike the town.

The existing hazard map has been published to show where the biggest seismic risks are for the area around Grindavík and Svartsengi

The new map covers a wider hazard area than the previous map.

The Iceland Monitor explains the three different zones.

Orange: Danger zone A: Danger due to seismic activity.

Red: Danger zone B: Danger due to possible eruption, including earth cracking open suddenly, eruption with little forewarning, lava flow and dangerous gas pollution

Purple: Danger zone C: Increased danger of eruption like in zone B, and even more danger of the earth opening suddenly and dangerous gas pollution.

In this zone escape routes need to be clear, gas monitors and gas masks are needed if entering the area.

The purple area is the highest danger zone , encompassing Hagafell, north east of the town of Grindavik.

As an imminent eruption looms thousands of Iceland residents await their fate as their town could be wiped out within days.

Some 3,400 residents from the town of Grindavik which lies on the path of the expected fissure vent eruption were forced to evacuate, they described the ‘apocalyptic’ scenes of their much-loved home town as they briefly returned to collect their belongings.

The whole population waits in limbo as they fear the fate of their close-knit community, many have already lost their homes whilst others do not know if their residencies still stand as earthquakes have continued to strike.

Páll Einarsson, a volcanologist from the University of Iceland said it has been difficult to take seismic readings today due to wind.

Due to windy conditions, the seismograp readings are less accurate, meaning it is harder to trace seismic activity says the professor.

He told the Independent: “The earthquakes are useful, they tell us where things are happening.

“It is extra difficult to measure since the weather is bad and windy, the seisomograph is less accurate.”