A new volcanic eruption began in Iceland on Saturday evening and is still ongoing but has subsided. It is the fourth eruption since December.
The eruption started in the same volcanic system as the previous ones, in the area between the Icelandic hills Hagafell and Stóra-Skógfell. During the evening, lava flowed across Grindavíkurvegur, the road between Grindavík and the northern part of the Reykjanes peninsula, as well as southwards towards Grindavík, westwards and even eastwards. The fissure is about 3.5 kilometres long.
– The current eruption is the strongest in the current system so far, geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson from the University of Iceland told the Icelandic state broadcaster RUV.
The eruption continued until Monday, but since Saturday it has decreased to about 2-5 per cent of its original strength, Guðmundsson said.
In December, the area was hit by a powerful volcanic eruption following strong earthquakes. Víðir Reynisson, head of the Civil Defence, said that Grindavík had been evacuated again, but that the eruption had not yet posed a threat to residents as the lava was flowing along the city’s sea walls. However, around 700 people have been evacuated from the Blue Lagoon tourist attraction.
– The biggest concern at the moment is the infrastructure, says Reynisson.
We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.
Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…
Despite promises of groundbreaking climate solutions, Swiss carbon dioxide giant Climeworks’ facility in Iceland has not only captured far less than promised – it has also emitted more carbon dioxide than it has absorbed.
Critics say the whole operation is deeply deceptive and one of many examples of scam projects created to profit from the alleged climate crisis.
Climeworks, a Swiss company that markets itself as a pioneer in direct carbon capture (DAC), has failed to achieve its targets in Iceland despite significant investment and media attention.
According to data from the verification company Puro.Earth and the company’s own annual reports, Climeworks has only captured around 2,400 tons of CO₂ in Iceland since 2021 – far below the promised capacity ceiling of 12,000 tons. In addition, the company’s own emissions from its operations have exceeded its capture: in 2023 alone, Climeworks emitted 1,700 tons of CO₂, significantly more than its total capture.
Climeworks’ first facility, Orca, was unveiled in 2021 with a capacity of 4,000 tons of CO₂ per year. In reality, it has never even reached half that target. The larger Mammoth facility, which could capture 36,000 tons annually, has only managed to collect 105 tons after ten months of operation.
According to CEO Jan Wurzbacher, Mammoth requires 5,000–6,000 kWh per ton of CO₂ captured – a process described as extremely inefficient. To offset Iceland’s total emissions (12.4 million tons in 2024), 72 terawatt hours of energy would be needed – four times the country’s annual electricity production.
Professor: “A scam”
Climeworks’ Icelandic subsidiary has negative equity of ISK 3.6 billion (€25 million) and is entirely dependent on funding from its parent company. The value of the Orca machine has also been written down by €1.25 million due to underperformance.
Despite this, the company has sold future carbon credits equivalent to one-third of Mammoth’s planned capacity for the next 25 years – even though over 21,000 private subscribers who have paid in advance risk having to wait decades for their certificates.
Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental science at Stanford University, calls the entire DAC industry a big scam and fraud.
– Direct capture is a scam, carbon capture is a scam, blue hydrogen is a scam, and electrofuel is a scam. These are all scam technologies that do nothing for the climate or air pollution.
“Semi-magical technology”
Michael de Podesta, a British pensioner who paid ISK 135,000 (€940) for 2.2 tons of CO₂ capture, expresses similar concerns in his blog, and after looking into the company more closely, he believes he has probably been scammed.
“This has all the hallmarks of a scam. There are undoubtedly a lot of highly paid people traveling the world to sell their services to large corporations to remove carbon credits in the future. They are using a semi-magical technology that doesn’t work as well as expected (better known as Orca) but will work perfectly in a larger version (Mammoth)”.
“I am urged to convince my friends to join the project. The answers are scarce and full of PR chatter. Climeworks’ operations look like a scam and talk like one. But is it a scam? I don’t know. I think it could work, but the company’s answers are so opaque that it’s hard to say”, he continues.
He will not know for sure until 2027 whether Climeworks has actually captured the 2.2 tons of carbon dioxide he has paid for.
Millions from the US
It is also worth noting that the company has received or been promised around $800 million in public subsidies, including $625 million from the US Department of Energy and $5 million from Switzerland. Despite this, the cost per ton of CO₂ captured remains at $1,000 – ten times higher than the original target.
Due to the failures of DAC, Climeworks has now instead begun to focus on “enhanced weathering”, a highly controversial method in which crushed rock is bound with CO₂. However, researchers believe that this is a sign of desperation to fulfill credits that have already been sold.
In summary, critics point out that Climeworks’ operations have been characterized by exaggerated promises, technical shortcomings, and financial irresponsibility since its inception. Despite being ranked as one of the world’s leading green tech companies by Time Magazine, its contribution to climate action is described as marginal at best – and at worst as directly counterproductive and harmful.
On Tuesday morning, yet another volcanic eruption began on the Reykjanes Peninsula. As the town of Grindavik was evacuated once again, rescue personnel were threatened with firearms.
Just a few weeks ago, increased seismic activity was recorded on the peninsula, indicating that new volcanic eruptions were imminent. By this morning, over 200 earthquakes had been registered, and by lunchtime, lava began to flow from a crater.
Since December 2023, Iceland has been hit hard by volcanic eruptions. This is the eighth eruption at Sundhnúk crater.
Threatened with Shotgun
The town of Grindavik has once again been evacuated, but not without problems. A rescue worker was reportedly threatened with a shotgun by a resident when trying to evacuate the town. No one was injured and the person in question has been arrested. Furthermore, around eight people reportedly chose not to evacuate from the town.
Grindavik has been hit hard by the outbreaks. Despite protective walls, which were set up around the town, the lava still flowed in and set buildings on fire. However, most buildings have been destroyed by the earthquakes. Before the eruptions started, around 3,500 people lived in Grindavik, but now almost all the houses have been sold to the state and most people have moved away.
May be the last eruption
On Wednesday morning, it was confirmed that the eruption was over. The last eruption was described as milder, but that there was still a significant amount of magma. Benedikt Ófeigsson, head of deformation measurements at Veðurstofan, Iceland’s meteorological authority, believes this may have been the last eruption in the current eruption sequence on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
– I think we can reasonably say this looks like the final phase in the sequence. Magma flow has slowed down significantly over the past year. But whether there could be one more eruption – that’s something we simply cannot know while it’s still unfolding, he told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV.
Seismic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula has increased in recent days, which is interpreted as an increased risk of a new volcanic eruption.
Iceland was hit by strong earthquakes in late 2023, which triggered a volcanic eruption. Since then, several eruptions have occurred, causing widespread evacuations, particularly in Grindavík and at the popular Blue Lagoon spa. The most recent eruption occurred in November, when both residents and tourists had to leave the area. Despite warnings from the authorities, some tourists went right up to the lava flows to photograph them.
Four small earthquakes
Four small earthquakes were recorded on Tuesday morning and the Icelandic Meteorological Office believes this could be a sign of an imminent eruption.
– The situation is that we are seeing clear signs of increased seismic activity, especially in the last week. Both at the magma intrusion site, but we are also seeing an increase in seismic activity both northwest and northeast of Grindavík. This has been happening over the past two to three days, Steinunn Helgadóttir, a natural disaster specialist at the Icelandic Meteorological Authority, told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV.
If a new eruption occurs, the warning time may be short. In previous eruptions, it took between 30 and 40 minutes from the first signs to the start of the eruption.
– We expect something similar for this eruption, she says.
2024 was recorded as the coldest year in Iceland in the last 27 years, according to the country’s meteorological office.Temperatures were below average for most of the year.
The national average temperature in Iceland was 0.8°C below the average for the period 1991-2020 last year, Icelandic state broadcaster RUV reports. Winter temperatures were below the national average, and although spring was close to average, April was particularly cold with heavy precipitation and snow in the north-east until the end of the month.
Summer was also unusually cold, with temperatures below normal in all summer months except July. In the fall, November offered an unusual contrast: the first half was very warm, while the second half was significantly colder than average.
According to Veðurstofa Íslands, Iceland’s meteorological office, 2024 was the coldest year since 1998.
The highest temperature of the year, 27.5°C, was recorded at Egilsstaðir Airport in eastern Iceland on July 14. The lowest temperature of the year, -28.6°C, was recorded at Svartárkot in northern Iceland on December 31.
