Eruptions into tourist boom
ash could damage jet engines, and the phones at Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection started ringing off the hook.
‘‘News agencies that we didn’t even know existed – countries we didn’t know existed – were calling us,’’ said the department’s Detective Chief Inspector Rognvaldur Olafsson. ‘‘We were even getting phone calls from the public, and emails: ‘You have to do something about this volcano. Can you make it stop?’’’
Iceland was briefly infamous as the country that stopped the world. But tourism authorities responded with a clever advertising campaign, creating TV and online ads in which Icelanders and visitors described how they were ‘‘Inspired by Iceland.’’
News footage of lava-spewing craters helped make the country look cool and beautiful, with a hint of danger.
Suddenly, Iceland was hot. Some 1.8 million people – almost six times the country’s population – are expected to visit this year, up from half a million in 2010. They are an economic godsend to a country still scarred by the 2008 financial crisis, which collapsed Iceland’s banks and sent unemployment soaring.
Katla has helped turn sleepy Vik, a community of 300 people some 180km east of the capital, Reykjavik, into a tourism hot spot. On a busy day it attracts hundreds of visitors who come to see the stark black sand beach, where jagged columns of basalt rock rise from the sea, and to hike up the Myrdalsjokull glacier, under which the volcano lies, invisible but rumbling. Katla is one of Iceland’s largest and most feared volcanoes. Its last eruption, in 1918, lasted almost a month, unleashed floodwaters the size of the Amazon and extended Iceland’s coast by 5km.
Like about half of Iceland’s volcanoes, it lies under glacial ice hundreds of metres thick. Eruptions melt the icecap, unleashing floodwaters that can destroy roads, buildings and powerlines, and send icebergs the size of houses hurtling downhill. There are also risks from ash, lava and poisonous gases spewed by the volcano.
But Vik is eager for volcanorelated opportunities. Olafsdottir says eruptions are an annoyance and a danger, but ‘‘after, it’s great.’’
Visitors flock to see still-warm lava and newly created craters. The eruption of the Bardarbunga volcano in 2014 even created a new tourist attraction: a natural hot tub where warm lava meets glacier water.
But Iceland’s volcanoes remain potentially lethal. Since Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland has improved its already welldeveloped system of volcano monitoring, warning and emergency response.
At the Icelandic Meteorological Office in Reykjavik, meteorologists, seismologists and volcanologists watch hundreds of sensors that monitor seismic activity, signs of volcanic inflation and gas emissions: evidence that magma from deep underground is being pushed to the surface.
Still, said Sigrun Karlsdottir, the Met Office director of natural hazards: ‘‘It is almost impossible to say when the next eruption will take place.’’
The biggest earthquakes in decades rattled Katla in late September, prompting authorities to raise their alert level and ramp up emergency procedures. The earthquakes subsided, but scientists say Katla usually erupts twice a century and is long overdue.
When it blows, residents in Vik may have only 15 minutes before they are enveloped in pitch black ash. Locals are well rehearsed in what to do – head to the church perched on a hill, the highest spot in town. Authorities are developing new ways of making sure visitors know it, too. Police can send text messages to everyone in an affected area, and also issue safety warnings through TV, radio and social media. ‘‘Trying to get that information is more of a challenge now because we have so much more of tourism than we used to have,’’ said Olafsson.
He says tourists are most welcome in Iceland, even if they have a tendency to do silly things, like go hiking in the mountains wearing sneakers and a T-shirt or climb a volcano without taking precautions. Like almost everyone in Iceland, Olafsson wants tourists to see his country as safe and welcoming – but to stay alert.
‘‘If you were going to be worried about anything that might happen you’d probably be best staying at home,’’ he said. ‘‘You have to respect nature when you come to Iceland, and you have to be aware of where you are and what can happen.’’