Iceland Creates New Postcode for Land That Didn't Exist Six Months Ago

Iceland's national postal service has assigned a new postcode to a 1.4-square-kilometer lava field on the Reykjanes Peninsula that did not exist six months ago, making it the first newly created land in Europe to receive mail service before it has cooled to a habitable temperature. The designation — postcode 241 — was assigned as part of routine cadastral updating following the August fissure eruption that added the land to Iceland's southern coastline. The lava field, which surface thermometers measure at approximately 400 degrees Celsius in places, now officially falls within the municipality of Grindavik. 'We update our postal zones whenever the national land registry changes,' said Islandspostur spokesperson Bjork Envelope. 'Iceland creates new land regularly. The postcode system must keep pace with the geology.' The assignment has created several bureaucratic oddities. The land has been zoned as 'undeveloped residential,' which the municipal planning board acknowledges is 'technically accurate in that no one has developed it and physically impossible in that it would melt their shoes.' A property tax assessment valued the land at zero krona, noting in the comments field: 'Property consists entirely of basaltic lava at surface temperatures incompatible with habitation, commerce, or agriculture. No structures present. No structures advisable.' Despite the assessment, two real estate inquiries have already been filed. 'People see new land and they think investment opportunity,' said Grindavik's municipal clerk. 'I had to explain that ocean-view property is less appealing when the ocean view includes an active fissure.' Islandspostur has confirmed that mail addressed to postcode 241 will be held at the Grindavik post office 'until the lava cools sufficiently to support a mailbox, which our geological consultants estimate will take between two and fifteen years.'