Tómas Jóhannesson, avalanche specialist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office says that the big landslide was made of sediment that was significantly old. “The big landslide is of a different nature than the ones that had already fallen. […] There are deep sediments there that can get quite unstable when it rains. What slid now was a bit further out in the fjord where the sediments are thick and are not located in a cirque but in a steep slope.” He says that the landslide is of a different nature than the ones that had already fallen, that those had been bound to the soil. The situation needs to be reassessed after this landslide. Tómas says that there is hardly any precipitation in Seyðisfjörður today. “We believe that the status will get better by the hour from now on, but the source of the landslide needs to be evaluated, whether anything has yet to slide and what is safe for the rescue teams and others to do.
María Sigrún Hilmarsdóttir. (Reporter). The status in Seyðisfjörður (is. Staðan á Seyðisfirði) [lunch news]. Ríkisútvarpið. Rás 1 and 2. December 19th .