The Police Commissioner in Iceland has decided to evacuate all people living in the area surrounding the Bardarbunga volcano, as increased seismic activity makes the area unsafe, possibly pointing to a soon-to-erupt volcano.
Officials in Ireland have been warning about the increased earthquakes and possible eruption of the volcano since Monday, August 18, when the Icelandic Road Administration closed some roads in the town of Herðubreið and Askja.
The largest reported earthquake so far was 4.5-magnitude.
"This decision is a safety measure," the agency said late on Tuesday night. "It cannot be ruled out that the seismic activity in Bardarbunga could lead to a volcanic eruption."
The area surrounding the area is mostly unpopulated. Most of the people being evacuated now are tourists and park rangers.
An eruption in the Bardarbunga volcano could be very bad for the area. The Iceland Review reports that in case of an eruption, the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum may flood within ten hours, as the heat of the volcano melts significant amounts of the glacier it is under. The volcano is under part of the Vatnajokull glacier. This could cause a glacial flood that could be disastrous. A flood could spread to populated areas north of the volcano.
Einar Einarsson, a meteorologist in Iceland, said that there were earthquakes now almost every minute.
"The fact that it is constant in motion and depth is probably good news," Einarsson said. "It doesn't seem to vary a lot - it is concentrated in one area under the glacier."
The Icelandic Meteorological Office has declared the risk level of an eruption as orange, the fourth-highest level of a five-level scale.
All of the area from Vatnajökull to Ring Road 1 has been closed to the public. A tourist attraction, a waterfall called Dettifoss which lies in the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum that is at risk of flooding if the volcano erupts, has remained open. It lies north of the Ring Road 1.
An eruption from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland caused major disruption of air travel in Europe in 2010 as ash from the volcano continued to clog the skies for six months after the eruption. The volcano ended up costing about $1.7 billion and affecting air travel for over 10 million passengers.
A webcam has been set up facing the Bardarbunga volcano, livestreaming the volcano so that people around the world can watch its eruption, when and if it erupts. The webcam is watching the volcano from a distance of about 20 miles. You can watch through the webcam here.
