A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland on Sunday, with molten lava flows reaching the outskirts of a small fishing city by mid-afternoon, setting some homes alight, though the city was evacuated earlier and no folks have been in peril, authorities mentioned.
Fountains of molten rock and smoke spewed from fissures within the floor throughout a large space stretching to the city of Grindavik, the place not less than one home had caught fireplace, reside video revealed by day by day Morgunbladid confirmed.
“No lives are in peril, though infrastructure could also be beneath risk,” Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson mentioned on social media web site X, including there had been no interruptions to flights.
The eruption started early on Sunday north of the city, which simply hours earlier than had been evacuated for the second time since November over fears that an outbreak was imminent amid a swarm of seismic exercise, authorities mentioned.
Authorities constructed boundaries of earth and rock in current weeks to attempt to stop lava from reaching Grindavik, some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of the capital Reykjavokay, however the newest eruption have penetrated the city’s defences.
The close by geothermal spa Blue Lagoon had closed on Sunday, it mentioned on its web site.
VOLCANIC HOTSPOT
It was the second volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland in lower than one month and the fifth outbreak since 2021.
Final month, an eruption began within the Svartsengi volcanic system on December 18 following the entire evacuation a month earlier of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents and the closing of the Blue Lagoon, a well-liked vacationer spot.
Greater than 100 Grindavik residents had returned in current weeks, earlier than Saturday’s renewed evacuation order, based on native authorities.
Iceland, which is roughly the scale of the U.S. state of Kentucky, boasts greater than 30 energetic volcanoes, making the north European island a first-rate vacation spot for volcano tourism – a distinct segment section that pulls 1000’s of thrill seekers.
In 2010, ash clouds from eruptions on the Eyafjallajokull volcano within the south of Iceland unfold over giant elements of Europe, grounding some 100,000 flights and forcing a whole bunch of Icelanders to evacuate their properties.
In contrast to Eyafjallajokull, the Reykjanes volcano programs aren’t trapped beneath glaciers and are thus not anticipated to trigger related ash clouds.
