By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Thursday, the Icelandic meteorological office said, spraying red-hot lava and smoke in the outbreak since December. This is the sixth since December.
The total length of the fissure was about 3.9 km (2.42 miles) and had extended by 1.5 km in about 40 minutes, the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes, said in a statement.
Livestreams from the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula showed glowing hot lava shooting up from the ground in the night sky.
“The impact is limited to a localized area near the eruption site. It does not present a threat to life and the area nearby was evacuated,” Iceland’s ministry for foreign affairs said on social media X.
The lava was not flowing towards the nearby Grindavik fishing town, whose nearly 4,000 residents have been mostly evacuated since November, the Met office said.
The eruption took place on the Sundhnukar crater row east of mountain Sylingafell, partly overlapping the other recent outbreaks on the Reykjanes peninsula, in a volcanic system which has no central crater but erupts by opening large cracks in the ground.
Studies had shown magma accumulating underground, prompting warnings of new volcanic activity in the area located just south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.
The most recent eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, home to about 30,000 people or nearly 8% of the country’s total population, ended on June 22 after spewing fountains of molten rock for 24 days.
The eruptions show the challenge faced by the country of nearly 400,000 people as scientists warn that the Reykjanes peninsula could face repeated outbreaks for decades or even centuries.
There have been nine eruptions on the peninsula since 2021, following the reactivation of geological systems that had been dormant for 800 years.
In response, authorities have constructed man-made barriers to redirect lava flows away from critical infrastructure, including the Svartsengi power plant, the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa and the town of Grindavik.
Flights were unaffected, Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport said on its web page, but the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury geothermal spa and hotel said it had closed and evacuated its guests.
Volcanic outbreaks in the Reykjanes peninsula are so-called fissure eruptions, which do not usually disrupt air traffic as they do not cause large explosions or significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere.