It is a surreal state, padding to the kitchen to blend a smoothie, while less than 25 miles away the ground is poised to split open and swallow a village.
The wild prospect — too huge to grasp, really — is that we residents of Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital, now live next to a reawakened volcanic system that might erupt any day, and every few months for the next few years, or even decades. It had lain dormant for 800 years until it rumbled back to life 2½ years ago.
More than 3,000 people have fled their homes as earthquakes portend an eruption. Magma is throbbing in the veins of the volcanic system underground, and the earthquakes keep coming, hundreds or thousands each day, of varying magnitudes. In Reykjavík, the ones that are above magnitude 3 shake my house; occasionally, objects tumble from shelves.
