LONDON – Volcanoes in southwestern Iceland have been quiet for 800 years, but the period of rest may soon be over: More than 18,000 earthquakes have shaken the area in just over a week, leading scientists to believe that an eruption could be imminent.
Geophysicists and volcanologists say the quakes are the culmination of more than a year of intense seismic activity, and although most of the tremors have lasted a few seconds, with light shaking, they have rattled residents in the capital, Reykjavik, just 32 km north of the Reykjanes Peninsula where they have occurred.
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