Just before dawn on January 14, a kilometer-long volcanic fissure opened in the ground just north of the Icelandic town of Grindavík. Instead of roaring from a conical mountain, effusive fountains of crimson lava bled upward from this schism. Soon after, a smaller second fissure opened across the frost-flecked earth. Although intense, the eruption was mercifully brief—but it still destroyed three houses in the northeastern section of the town, which had been preemptively evacuated. Two days later, people displaced from Grindavík gathered at a sports hall in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík to hear from politicians, scientists, and emergency managers and to discuss their town’s future. During the forum, Grindavík resident Bryndís Gunnlaugsdóttir said that the day that the eruption ended was the worst of her life because she discovered that her house had survived the invasion.