Via Ruth ComerfordBBC News14 January 2024Updated 2 mins agoVideo caption, Watch: Volcano lava units area on fireplace in IcelandHouses had been set on fireplace within the Icelandic the city of Grindavik after two volcanic fissures opened within reach. A volcano at the Reykjanes peninsula erupted within the early hours of Sunday, spilling lava into the fishing the city. The eruption is proving to be “the worst case situation” in step with one professional, with all the inhabitants of town being evacuated.Defences constructed after an eruption in December have partly contained the lava, however some had been breached. The principle highway into town has been bring to an end through the drift of lava. On Monday, Icelandic government mentioned the drift of molten rock looked as if it would have slowed. Addressing the country in a are living broadcast on Sunday night time, Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson instructed other people to “stand in combination and feature compassion for individuals who can’t be of their properties”.He mentioned he was hoping the location would relax, however that “anything else can occur”, the AFP information company reported.Robust earthquake tremors preceded the December eruption within the Svartsengi volcanic gadget. Within the weeks since, partitions have been constructed across the volcano to direct molten rock clear of Grindavik, house to a few 4,000 other people.The Icelandic Meteorological Place of job (IMO) mentioned the limitations have been breached in some puts, permitting lava to succeed in town which then set properties and constructions on fireplace.There was once no indication of disruption to home or global flights following the eruption. The IMO’s aviation color code for the Reykjanes peninsula was once orange on Monday morning, indicating an ongoing eruption with “no or minor ash emission”.Flights from within reach Keflavik Airport have been working as commonplace.Symbol caption, A volcano spews lava and smoke because it erupts in Reykjanes PeninsulaPeople who had returned to Grindavik, in south-west Iceland, after the former eruption have been compelled to depart their properties as soon as once more. “Seeing your house burn down on are living tv is one thing you can’t simply maintain,” Unndpr Sigurthsson, whose circle of relatives area was once destroyed, instructed MBL. She mentioned her circle of relatives had left nearly all their pieces once they have been evacuated, leaving them handiest with garments and crucial pieces.Volcanologist Evgenia Ilyinskaya instructed BBC Breakfast that the peninsula was once most probably coming into a length of common eruptions, referred to as the New Reykjanes Fires. Prof Ilyinskaya mentioned eruptions may just happen “each few months or yearly for a number of many years or a number of centuries.”The Reykjanes Fires have been a sequence of intense volcanic job at the peninsula within the twelfth Century. Top Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir mentioned the federal government will probably be assembly on Monday to speak about housing measures for the evacuated citizens.”Nowadays is a black day for Grindavik and as of late is a black day for all of Iceland, however the solar will upward push once more,” she mentioned.”In combination we will be able to maintain this surprise and no matter would possibly come. Our ideas and prayers are with you.”Symbol caption, Lava spreads around the Reykjanes peninsulaThe nation’s alert point has been raised to “emergency” – the perfect of the three-level scale which indicators there is usually a risk of injury to other people, communities, belongings or the surroundings.Sunday’s eruption is the 5th to have taken position alongside the Reykjanes peninsula since 2021. Iceland sits over what is referred to as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates – two of the biggest on the earth. Iceland has 33 lively volcano methods.
