CNN –
A volcano erupted dramatically in Iceland on Monday, with spectacular eruptions of lava and smoke lighting up the night sky after weeks of seismic activity prompted the evacuation of a nearby town.
The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula began around 10 p.m. local time and followed an earthquake about an hour earlier, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said in a statement.
The office reported that the eruption occurred near Hagafell, about three kilometers north of the town of Grindavík.
The Icelandic Coast Guard posted a video on Facebook showing one of its helicopters at the scene of the accident, hovering over a long line of glowing lava spouting from the crack in the ground. The air is shrouded in smoke and lit in bright orange and red tones.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Icelandic government said the fissure was almost four kilometers long. It is the fourth outbreak in the region since 2021 and the largest to date, the statement added.
An evacuation order was issued for Grindavík and surrounding settlements last month, preventing residents from staying in their homes overnight due to the threat of a volcanic eruption, public broadcaster RÚV reported.
The city with more than 3,000 inhabitants, which once… RÚV reported, citing police, that there was a risk of being in the way of the flowing lava and that it had now been cleared of residents. It is a popular place for tourists as it is located about 7 kilometers from the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.
The outbreak poses no threat to life, the Icelandic government said in its statement. The area was closed to all traffic, it said, but people were strongly warned not to approach the area.
While the eruption is not expected to impact populated areas or critical infrastructure in the coming days and is unlikely to reach Grindavík, “significant” toxic gases will be released, the Icelandic Tourism Association said on Tuesday.
“People are strongly advised not to visit the site of the outbreak while emergency responders and scientists assess the situation,” the tourism board added.
The government said there are currently no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.
It added that the eruption is classified as a fission eruption, which does not normally result in large explosions or significant ash production in the stratosphere.
According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, hundreds of cubic meters of lava per second were released in the first two hours of the eruption. But the intensity of the eruption and the extent of seismic activity in the area had subsided by early Tuesday, and lava was spreading laterally from both sides of the newly opened fissures.
Brynjar Gunnarsson/AP
People watch as the night sky is illuminated by the eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, seen from the capital Reykjavik on December 18, 2023.
Last month's violent wave of hundreds of earthquakes triggered a national state of emergency after the country's civil protection agency said a magma tunnel was forming that could reach Grindavík.
“It is clear that we are dealing with events that we Icelanders have never experienced before, at least not since the eruption in Vestmannaeyjar,” the agency said, citing an eruption in 1973 that began without warning and killed 400 people Houses destroyed.
The Blue Lagoon, whose steaming waters attract tourists, was temporarily closed last month after early signs of a possible eruption. It only reopened to guests on Sunday – but on Tuesday it was announced that it would be temporarily closing again due to the outbreak.
Authorities also said in November that they were preparing a protective moat around a geothermal power plant about seven kilometers from Grindavík that provides electricity and geothermal water to heat homes for a population of 30,000 people on the peninsula.
Iceland lies on a tectonic plate boundary that is constantly splitting and separating North America and Eurasia along the line of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is home to 32 active volcanoes.
As a result, the island nation is used to volcanic eruptions, although they often occur in the wilderness away from populated areas. The Bárðarbunga volcanic system, located in the center of the country, erupted in 2014, producing lava that covered 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) of highlands and did not harm any villages.
The Fagradalsfjall volcanic system erupted in 2021 for the first time in more than 6,000 years. It also posed no threat to populated areas and even became a tourist attraction as people flocked to witness the eruption.
Experts don't expect a volcanic eruption to cause the same level of havoc as when Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, as it is unlikely to be the glacial ice that led to a huge ash cloud.
About 100,000 flights were canceled, affecting 2 million people, as ash from the 2010 eruption stalled aircraft engines and caused power outages.
“Eyjafjallajökull was an eruption through or adjacent to glacial ice that melted and yielded water that made the eruption more explosive than it otherwise would have been, hence the high eruption plume and very wide ash spread,” said Lionel Wilson, professor emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Lancaster University, CNN said last month.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.