Man Missing After Falling Into Crack in Earth

A man is missing after falling into a crack in the ground that opened up due to recent volcanic activity on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula, according to local reports.

The man had been working to compact soil into a crevasse in the coastal fishing town of Grindavik—near the site of a recent eruption—on Wednesday morning when he fell into it. A search and rescue operation involving more than 200 people was said to have continued overnight, but they have yet to find the missing person.

"We came to search until we find him," Úlfar Lúðvíksson, the region's police chief, told Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid.

He explained that it was unclear how deep the crack ran, and that the search operation was having to be planned carefully to ensure no one else fell in.

Lúðvíksson told Iceland's national broadcaster RUV that the conditions are "very difficult and demanding," adding: "There are two men who go down in a basket at a time and stay down for about 10 minutes. Then they come up and the other two take over."

Newsweek approached the Suðurnes region police force via email for comment on Thursday.

When elevated seismic activity was initially recorded on the Reykjanes Peninsula in early November, cracks appeared in the ground in and around Grindavik, prompting the evacuation of the town's population of nearly 4,000 people.

The town sits close to the path of an approximately 9.3-mile long vertical intrusion of magma in the Earth's crust, that is thought to be fed by a horizontal intrusion causing crustal uplift around the nearby geothermal power plant at Svartsengi.

Magma in the vertical dike pushed through to the surface on December 18, causing lava to shoot up to 650 feet into the air. Five vents opened up when the eruption initially occurred, with the closest around 1.7 miles from Grindavik.

Lava flows have so far spread northeastward, away from Grindavik and into an uninhabited area of the peninsula. Authorities have built earth walls and channels around the town and the power plant at Svartsengi to divert lava flows that might reach them.

While the previous eruption has subsided, officials warned on Tuesday that another eruption could occur in a matter of days, with the most likely site being along the vertical dike.

Volcanologists previously told Newsweek that the December 18 eruption could mark the start of over a century of volcanic activity in the region.

Haraldur Sigurdsson, an emeritus professor of geophysics at the University of Rhode Island, expressed hopes following the eruption of a brief reprieve from volcanic activity, and argued that Grindavik's residents should be allowed to return home.

He and others noted, though, that much of Iceland's infrastructure—including the capital Reykjavík—is located in the region that now faces the threat of continued volcanic activity.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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