The National Police Commissioner, in consultation with the East Iceland Police Commissioner, decided to declare a civil protection level in Seyðisfjörður due to the risk of landslides. After heavy rainfall in recent days, the Meteorological Institute’s measuring devices that monitor the slope above Seyðisfjörður have begun to show the displacement of a large piece of land at the edge of the Búðará landslide.
This fragment has an area of approximately 2-3 m2. It is located in the inner part of the canal of a large landslide from 2020. Measurement devices also indicate that this movement picked up this morning. Consequently, the flood police recommended the evacuation of nine houses.
“We can see that the rain over the last few days has affected the stability of this section, but otherwise the slope seems to be stable. The situation and the data received from the measuring devices will continue to be closely monitored¨ – says Esther Hlíðar Jensen, an expert from the Institute of Meteorology.
Movement is visible both in radar measurements and in measurements with mirrors in the universal measuring station. There are no visible offsets elsewhere on the slope.
Image showing radar measurement (InSar). The white circle indicates a moving area. The color scale determines the amount of shifts. The image shows a change that has occurred since October 2.
Among the devices that have been purchased to monitor the slope above Seyðisfjörður is an automatic station that has been set up north of the fjord. These devices emit light beams into mirrors that have been installed in Neðri-Botnar and Botnabrún and record their movements.
Source: Yle