The Blue Lagoon closed for two months this winter, and hundreds of guests and staff were evacuated due to eruptions in March and May (it reopened on June 14). The eruption also poses a risk to infrastructure including nearby access roads, hot water pipeline, and power plants.
The most recent volcanic eruption that began on May 29 lasted for 24 days, forming the largest lava field so far. Hazardous areas surrounding active fissures are closed due to risks of unpredictable lava flow, toxic gas, earthquakes, and sinkholes.
But beyond the closed-off areas, Iceland remains completely safe for tourists—as long as you follow the local guidelines. There has been no effect on air travel to and from the country, unlike during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption (which took place beneath a glacier, causing abnormally large clouds of ash that grounded nearly 100,000 flights across Europe).
Still, misinformation and confusion has caused some international travelers to cancel trips to Iceland out of fear, Kristinsson says. This year was expected to be a record-breaking year for tourism in Iceland, but as of this winter, bookings are lagging behind forecasts, reports Bloomberg.
However, with guidance from locals, travelers can embrace the Þetta reddast mindset for themselves. If you plan on visiting Iceland in your lifetime, knowing how to deal with volcanic unpredictability has become somewhat necessary: scientists believe the Reykjanes Peninsula could remain active for the next 100 years—or longer.
So what’s the key to the relaxed, yet guarded, sense of respect Icelanders hold for their at-times self-destructive home? It’s not denying, or ignoring, the reality of volcanoes—quite the opposite, in fact. Icelanders can recite geology and volcanology facts like the alphabet. The stories of past eruptions are passed through generations in Iceland, from the 1783 Laki eruption that caused a famine killing an estimated 20 to 25% of Iceland’s population, to the 1973 Eldfell eruption on the Westman Islands, where Kristinsson’s wife grew up—her town was evacuated one night without warning, before more than 400 homes were destroyed or buried by volcanic ash and lava.
It helps that Iceland is home to some of the world’s best volcanologists and forecasting technology. While it’s still a real possibility to lose a home or an entire town to lava, it’s now become incredibly rare to be killed by an eruption. Since 1500 AD, there have only been 13 fatalities during eruptions in Iceland, one study found in 2008. (That number has not changed since.)
“All of us who live here know that potentially, a big eruption may happen. But the thing is, we have survived this in the past, and there’s no saying that we won’t survive it again,” says Ágústsdóttir. “We try to be prepared for when it happens, but we’re not too concerned about it. We’re not letting it affect our daily lives.”
One reason international travelers may find this mindset difficult to understand is that many countries don’t have the social services in place to create a safety net for citizens displaced by natural disasters, she says. But where Iceland may lack in physical security, it has made up with its social support network. After the majority of residents permanently evacuated Grindavik in November, Iceland’s government agreed to purchase their homes for 95% of the original purchase price in addition to subsidizing displaced residents’ rent in new homes through the remainder of the year.
