Icelandic authorities are engaged on a plan to guard the evacuated city of Grindavik from a volcanic eruption, Sky News has been advised.

Scientists at present imagine the most certainly web site for magma to interrupt by the floor is a brief distance from the city, and it might move in direction of homes.

But Almannavarnir, the Icelandic civil defence, stated earth partitions might be constructed to divert a river of molten lava away from the city.

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Jon Thor Viglundsson, from the authority, stated the method had been examined in current eruptions elsewhere.

"So this we will try," he stated. "You guide lava, you can't stop it. You push up large amounts of earth. It's the only way to make a funnel to turn lava away."

The magma is most certainly to erupt between one and 1.5 miles northeast of the city, in response to the Icelandic Met Office.

But the high-risk zone is on a slope and precisely the place the magma breaks by will decide whether or not the lava flows south in direction of the city or north in direction of an influence station, the place a defensive wall as much as eight metres excessive is already being constructed.

Salome Jorunn Bernhardsdottir, a pure hazards specialist on the Met Office, advised Sky News scientists have been modelling completely different prospects.

"It's highly dependent on the contours," she stated. "The flow could go north or south.

"So, what groups have been doing is mapping out completely different situations, with completely different move charges to see how efficient boundaries could be in diverting the move."

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The magma is at present believed to be at a depth of round 500m alongside a nine-mile line that passes near Grindavik.

Dr Bernhardsdottir stated the molten rock seems to be cooling and hardening in locations.

But magma continues to construct up within the space the place an eruption is most certainly.