Iceland is a crazy place to live. It's blisteringly cold, but there's also lava everywhere.
Yep, just a normal day in the Land of Fire and Ice!
The Blue Lagoon is a 4-star luxury hotel near the town of Grindavík. The Blue Lagoon itself is considered a wonder of the natural world.
Imagine your GPS telling you to turn into the parking lot for your luxury hotel and seeing THIS:
The hotel's webpage says the hotel is "temporarily closed through Sunday."
And they mean it. As of right now, I can book a visit to the lagoon for Monday!
This is the seventh time the nearby volcano has erupted in the last year. From WaPo:
Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a geophysics professor at the University of Iceland who flew over the site of the eruption on Wednesday night, told The Washington Post in an email Thursday that the fissure opened up at the same location as earlier eruptions.
Gudmundsson said that as of Thursday afternoon, the lava had reached the Blue Lagoon's parking lot. He added that barriers to protect Grindavik, the Blue Lagoon and the nearby Svartsengi Power Plant 'have been effective so far.'
Unlike previous eruptions, there weren't advanced warnings in the day ahead of the fissure reopening. Signs of an eruption only occured about 45 minutes ahead of time.
50 to 60 homes were evacuated and there have been no reports of casualties.
It's unclear how long this period of increased activity will last, Gudmundsson said, but he noted that previous episodes suggested volcanic eruptions in the area could be followed by a period of around 100 to 150 years of no volcanic activity.
Make sure to give your great-great-great grandkids a heads up if they decide to visit!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
