Sleepless Icelanders await eruption

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Updated

Why are Icelanders sleep-deprived?

Over 40,000 quakes have disrupted their sleep since late Feb

Location: Grindavik, Iceland

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT, RANNVEIG GUDMUNDSDOTTIR, SAYING: "So the situation in Grindavik is quite uncomfortable right now. Everyone is sleep-deprived because the earth is constantly moving all day, all night, some earthquakes are bigger than others. Some are 3.1 some are 4.2. Today we had a big one of 5.4, things fell down on the shelves in the house even though I had laid many things down."

Scientists have called it an unprecedented seismic event

which may well end in a lava show

Authorities put an emergency plan in place in 2020

(SOUNDBITE) (English) ICELAND GEOSURVEY (ISOR) GEOPHYSICIST, SIGRIDUR KRISTJANSDOTTIR, SAYING: "It will be a small eruption, we would see these fissures on the surface. It would be kind of a nice, picturesque firewall coming through cracks in the surface. It would not be a large explosive eruption because there is no glacier water involved so it would be kind of nice to look at, probably."