Iceland is on high alert for a possible eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, with experts warning an eruption could occur with as little as 30 minutes warning.
Authorities fear that stormy weather conditions and snow could affect monitoring systems, with yellow weather warnings in place for a large part of the island.
This includes the Reykjanes Peninsula where the volcano is located.
It comes a day after officials told people living in Grindavik, a small village of a few thousand near the Blue Lagoon, that they likely won’t return home for “months” as the volcano could blow within “days not months”.
Almost 4,000 people were evacuated earlier this month from a coastal town as the ground shook, roads cracked and buildings suffered structural damage from thousands of quakes.
Scientists feared molten rock could imminently rise to the earth's surface.
Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, Iceland is a perennial seismic hot spot, but direct volcanic threats to inhabited areas are still rare.
While 165 small tremors have been recorded in the affected region since midnight on Monday, this is a small number compared to the thousands that rocked the town of Grindavik last week.
The head of Iceland’s civil defence unit on Wednesday revealed that restrictions in the area around the volcano were being kept under review.
Teams are also exploring whether it is possible to pump water onto the lava, Víðir Reynisson, director of the Icelandic National Defense said.
He told broadcaster RUV: “We are in the European cooperation on civil defense and there are all kinds of teams that are registered there.
“Among other things, there are teams that pump flood water, and we wanted to investigate whether it was possible to use the equipment that pumps an uncontrollable amount of water and bring it to the edge of the lava.”
Authorities are also preparing to build defence walls around a geothermal power plant that they hope will protect it by diverting lava flows.
However, it remains unclear if the volcano will erupt, and if so, how severe it will be.
No volcanic eruption had occurred for 815 years on the Reykjanes Peninsula until March 2021, which erupted fresh lava sporadically until mid September that year.
