COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -A volcano in southwestern Iceland despatched glowing scorching lava taking pictures greater than 50 metres into the air on Wednesday, its fifth eruption since December and probably the most highly effective one since its volcanic system grew to become energetic three years in the past.
Authorities had warned of the danger of renewed volcanic exercise within the space simply south of the capital Reykjavik as research confirmed magma amassed underground. The eruption started shortly after the top of an eight-week lengthy eruption that occurred between Hagafell and Stora-Skogfell on the identical Reykjanes peninsula.
The lava fountains reached 50 metres (164 toes) excessive and the size of the fissure was round 3.4 km, Iceland’s Met Workplace mentioned in an announcement.
“The first assessment of scientists is that the beginning of this eruption is more powerful than in previous eruptions,” the workplace mentioned.
Flights continued as normal at Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport, in keeping with the airport’s web site.
The fiery spectacle underlines the challenges confronted by the island nation of virtually 400,000 folks as scientists have warned that repeated eruptions are attainable in Reykjanes for many years and even centuries.
Wednesday’s was the eighth eruption since 2021 on the peninsula, dwelling to some 30,000 folks, after geological programs that had lain dormant for 800 years grew to become energetic once more.
“It started as a very traditional fissure eruption with a lot of lava fountains and lava already being spilled out,” mentioned Ari Trausti Gudmundsson, an Icelandic geophysicist.
“The fountain activity is usually most powerful in the beginning. It abates very slowly, and maybe in the next 24 hours, most of these lava fountains will slow,” he mentioned, including that the eruption might go on for days or even weeks.
Such volcanic exercise has disrupted district heating, closed key roads and razed a number of houses within the Grindavik fishing city, to which just a few residents have returned since an evacuation in late 2023.
To stop harm, man-made limitations have been constructed to steer lava away from infrastructure together with the Svartsengi geothermal energy plant, the Blue Lagoon spa and Grindavik.
The fissure had prolonged to lower than a kilometer from the defenses of Grindavik, the met workplace mentioned.
Iceland’s civil defence was placed on excessive alert, police mentioned, and authorities once more ordered an evacuation of Grindavik.
The close by Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, recognized for its massive outside swimming pools, was shut and its friends evacuated.
Residents discuss with Iceland because the “Land of Fire and Ice” – a tribute to its otherworldly panorama of mountain peaks, ice fields and fjords, a seismic hotbed positioned between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.