A volcano has erupted in southwest Iceland for the second time in less than a month, hurling half-molten rock toward a nearby settlement.
The eruption just before 8 a.m. Sunday occurred after a wave of earthquakes near the town of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. The community was evacuated overnight, Iceland's RUV television reported.
“Lava flows a few hundred meters north of the city, that's 400 to 500 meters,” Kristín Jónsdóttir from the Icelandic Meteorological Office told Iceland's RUV television. “Lava flows towards Grindavik.”
Grindavik residents were evacuated from their homes back in November and had to stay away from the city for six weeks following a series of earthquakes and a possible volcanic eruption. They were allowed to return on December 22nd.
A volcano spews lava and smoke as it erupts in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, January 14, 2024. ICELAND DISASTER RESPONSE via Portal
The town of 3,800 people near Iceland's main airport was evacuated on November 10 when a swarm of earthquakes caused cracks and openings in the earth between the town and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north. The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa – one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions – was also temporarily closed.
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In the weeks that followed, defensive walls were built around the volcano in hopes of diverting magma away from the community. But the walls of the barriers erected north of Grindavik had been breached and lava was on its way towards the community, the weather office said.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, experiences an eruption every four to five years on average. The most devastating recent eruption was the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010, which sent huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
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