A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland for the second one time in lower than a month, sending semi-molten rock spewing towards a close-by settlementBy MARCO DI MARCO Related PressJanuary 14, 2024, 5:25 AM ET• 3 min readREYKJAVIK, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted for the second one time in lower than a month on Sunday, sending lava snaking towards a close-by group and atmosphere a minimum of one house on hearth.The eruption, which started simply earlier than 8 a.m. native time, got here after government evacuated town of Grindavik following a swarm of small earthquakes, the Icelandic Meteorological Place of job stated. Hours later, a 2nd fissure opened close to the threshold of the town and lava crept towards the houses.“We simply watch it at the cameras and there’s truly not anything else we will be able to do,” Grindavik resident Reynir Berg Jónsson advised Iceland’s RUV tv.Grindavik is a the town of three,800 other folks about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. The group used to be in the past evacuated in November following a sequence of earthquakes that opened huge cracks within the earth between town and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north. The within sight Blue Lagoon geothermal spa — considered one of Iceland’s greatest vacationer sights — additionally closed quickly.The volcano ultimately erupted on Dec. 18, and citizens had been allowed to go back to their houses on Dec. 22.Within the weeks since then, emergency staff had been development defensive partitions round Grindavik, however the limitations weren’t whole and lava is transferring towards the group, the meteorological workplace stated.Earlier than closing month’s eruption, the Svartsengi volcanic gadget north of Grindavik were dormant for round 780 years. The volcano is only a few kilometers west of Fagradalsfjall, which used to be dormant for six,000 years earlier than flaring to existence in March 2021.Not like the former match, Saturday’s eruption at Svartsengi produced a “very speedy glide” of lava that moved south towards Grindavik, stated Kristín Jónsdóttir of the Met Place of job.“Fortuitously, we were given some warnings, so we were given larger earthquake job, and this used to be all communicated against the civil coverage, so town of Grindavik used to be evacuated,” she stated.Iceland, which sits above a volcanic scorching spot within the North Atlantic, averages one eruption each and every 4 to 5 years.Probably the most disruptive lately used to be the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the ambience and disrupted trans-Atlantic air go back and forth for months.Sunday’s eruption at the Reykjanes Peninsula isn’t anticipated to unencumber huge quantities of ash into the air. Operations at Keflavík Airport are proceeding as commonplace, stated Gudjon Helgason, airport operator Isavia’s press officer.However Grindavik citizens are carefully tracking the slowly unfolding crisis because the streams of smoking lava creep towards their houses.“I will be able to’t truly consider what persons are going via,” stated Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove, a nature photographer. “The truth that you’ll see this on tv, the truth that you’ll see this on webcams, it’s just a little of a unusual feeling to look a the town being destroyed nearly in gradual movement at this level.”
