2024-03-16 21:10:02
Lava gushed from a new volcanic fault on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula on Saturday, marking the fourth eruption in the area since December, authorities said.
A “volcanic eruption has started between Stora Skogfell and Hagafell on the Reykjanes Peninsula,” the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO) announced in a statement, as live video feeds showed glowing lava and plumes of smoke.
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Icelandic Civil Protection announced the dispatch of a helicopter to precisely locate the new crack.
Minutes before the eruption, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute released a statement reporting seismic activity that increased the risk of another eruption.
According to local press, the fishing town of Grindavik began to be evacuated and residents received text messages ordering them to quickly leave the area. The approximately 4,000 residents of Grindavik were allowed to return home on February 19, following being evacuated on November 11.
Grindavik, but also the Svartsengi energy plant and the Blue Lagoon geothermal tourist site, have been regularly evacuated since November.
Some 28,000 people live in this region, located in the south of the peninsula, one of the most populated in Iceland, regarding 40 km southwest of Reykjavik.
Grindavik had to be evacuated on November 11 following hundreds of tremors damaged homes and largely cracked roads, raising fears for the future of the town.
The earthquakes were then followed by a volcanic fault on December 18 which spared Grindavik and then a second on January 14 on the edge of the town, pouring orange lava into the streets and reducing three houses to ashes.
On February 8, a third eruption near the same locality was accompanied by a river of magma of 15 million m3 during the first seven hours.
Iceland is home to the largest number of active volcanoes in Europe, numbering 33.
The activity recorded since 2021 in this Reykjanes peninsula testifies to the awakening, following 800 years, of a long fault allowing the rise of magma, volcanologists agree.
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