Before You Arrive

What has happened this area past years ?

Over the last several years, the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland has awakened after centuries of quiet, revealing a complex and fascinating sequence of volcanic events. This renewed activity began at Fagradalsfjall in 2021, where magma finally broke through the surface after lying dormant for roughly six thousand years. The first eruption, in March 2021, was gentle by Icelandic standards—an effusive fissure eruption producing slow-moving lava rather than explosive ash clouds. It quickly became a natural spectacle, drawing thousands of visitors and providing scientists with an invaluable real-time laboratory for studying how magma rises, how fissures open, and how lava fields gradually build new landscape.

Two more eruptions followed in the same system: one in August 2022 and another in July 2023 near Litli-Hrútur. Each of these events confirmed that Fagradalsfjall had entered a new active phase, characterized by relatively short but frequent eruptions. While they caused little damage to infrastructure, they clearly demonstrated that the peninsula had shifted into a new volcanic cycle—one that could last decades or even centuries. The Fagradalsfjall eruptions were geologically important but occurred in relatively remote highlands, making them mostly safe to observe and study.

Later in 2023, however, volcanic unrest migrated a few kilometers southwest into a far more sensitive area: the Svartsengi–Sundhnúkur volcanic system, immediately north of the town of Grindavík. Here, magma accumulated at shallow depth beneath a populated region. In November 2023 the ground began to tear apart, forming a dramatic graben—a collapsing block of land—right through the town. Roads split open, pipes ruptured, and residents were forced to evacuate their homes. Only weeks later, in December 2023, the first eruption in this new series broke through the surface.

What followed was a rapid, unprecedented sequence of eruptions: nine separate events between December 2023 and mid-2025. Unlike the Fagradalsfjall eruptions, which were mostly benign, the Sundhnúkur eruptions often posed direct risks to homes, roads, power lines, and the nearby geothermal plant at Svartsengi. Lava at times advanced toward the town, several houses burned, and protective earth barriers became crucial defenses. These eruptions varied widely in size and duration—some lasted only a few hours, while others continued for weeks—yet all were driven by the same underlying mechanism: the repeated filling and draining of a shallow magma reservoir that lies only a few kilometers beneath the surface.

Together, the eruptions at Fagradalsfjall and Grindavík tell a larger story about the Reykjanes Peninsula. The region sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates pull apart. This slow stretching allows magma from deep within the Earth to rise upward, sometimes quietly and sometimes with force. Historical records and geological evidence suggest that the peninsula experiences centuries-long cycles of volcanic activity separated by long periods of calm. The recent eruptions indicate that a new active period has begun.

While this renewed activity brings challenges—evacuations, infrastructure damage, and uncertainty for residents—it also offers scientists a rare opportunity to observe the birth of new land and to understand how volcanic systems evolve. In a broader sense, these eruptions are a reminder that Iceland’s landscape is alive, continually shaped by powerful forces beneath the surface. The ground may tremble and the lava may flow, but through careful monitoring and scientific insight, Iceland continues to adapt to a land that is always in the making.

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