2024-03-17 18:47:53
The new volcanic eruption that began Saturday evening on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland continued on Sunday and the lava continued to advance, but at a slower pace, authorities announced.
The molten material flows “continuously and slowly”, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO) said, adding that it was closely monitoring this development.
The lava is now some 200 m from the water distribution pipe coming from the Svartsengi power station, which supplies electricity but also water to 30,000 people.
The eruption, which began at 8:23 p.m. Saturday (9:23 p.m. in Switzerland), however evolved, noted the IMO, specifying that, “during the night, its intensity decreased and there are now three active openings on the crack”.
The IMO further noted that seismic activity had “also decreased significantly during the night” – a “development very similar to that of the three previous eruptions on Sundhnukur”.
At the start of the eruption, the IMO estimated that it was “the most important”, in terms of magma discharge, of the series that the region has been experiencing for four months.
New evacuation
The police declared a state of emergency on Saturday as soon as the eruption began and the small town of Grindavik was again evacuated, as well as the geothermal tourist site of the Blue Lagoon.
The approximately 4,000 inhabitants of Grindavik had to leave in November at the time of the first eruption and it was only on February 19 that they were authorized to return to this locality, badly damaged by the hundreds of seismic tremors which accompanied the eruptions. However, only a hundred of them chose to return to live there.
These eruptions also raise fears of damage to the Svartsengi power plant. Evacuated at the first eruption, it has since been managed remotely, while dikes were built to protect it.
Iceland, located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the Eurasian and North American plates meet, is home to the largest number of active volcanoes in Europe, numbering 33.
The activity recorded since 2021 in the Reykjanes peninsula testifies to the awakening, after 800 years, of a long fault allowing the rise of magma, volcanologists agree.
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