Nature
Iceland experiences third volcanic eruption since December
Lava is seen on the road to Grindavík in Iceland after a volcanic eruption. photo
© Marco Di Marco/AP/dpa
Glowing red lava in the middle of a snowy landscape: For the third time in just a few weeks, the earth is opening up on the volcanic island of Iceland. The location of the outbreak appears to be more favorable this time.
It’s the third spectacular time in Iceland in just eight weeks Volcanic eruption occurred. On Thursday morning, a crack in the earth that was estimated to be three kilometers long opened up north of the coastal town of Grindavík, from which glowing red lava then bubbled up.
According to the weather authority Vedurstofa, the lava fountains northeast of the Sylingarfell mountain reached a height of around 50 to 80 meters. The steam cloud even rose to a height of around three kilometers. A lava field quickly formed around the crack, as seen in live streams from Icelandic broadcaster RÚV.
How long the outbreak will last this time cannot yet be estimated. However, experts expected that he would be able to lie down again within a few days.
In recent days, the weather authority had recorded a new accumulation of several million cubic meters of magma beneath the volcanic area on the Reykjanes Peninsula and therefore warned that the likelihood of another eruption in the near future had increased. Shortly before the eruption, it announced another earthquake swarm early on Thursday morning.
The sixth outbreak since 2021
It is the sixth eruption of this type on the peninsula southwest of Reykjavik since 2021 and the third since mid-December alone. In the most recent eruption in mid-January, the lava also reached the foothills of the previously evacuated town of Grindavík and destroyed three houses there – it was the first time in half a century that homes had been destroyed by lava masses in an eruption on the North Atlantic island.
Now the location of the eruption site appears to be more favorable: According to Kristín Jónsdóttir from the weather authority, the fissure lies north of a point that essentially determines the lava flow. This means that the lava will flow east, west and north, but it is less likely that it will flow south towards Grindavík, she said on Icelandic radio.
There was initially no immediate danger to Grindavík, a power plant or other infrastructure in the area. The operator of the Blue Lagoon geothermal bath, which is one of the highlights of a trip to Iceland for many tourists, also announced on Thursday: “The current eruption site is a safe distance from the Blue Lagoon.” Nevertheless, operations at the pool with its white-blue water were temporarily suspended on Thursday.
The eruptions of recent years do not look like what you would imagine a classic volcanic eruption to be: the lava does not bubble up from a volcanic mountain, but flows out of an elongated crack in the earth, which is why this type of eruption is also known as a fissure eruption .
Even though Iceland’s Keflavík International Airport is located very close to the site of the eruption, such eruptions have no impact on air traffic: Unlike the eruption of the volcanic glacier Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, this does not produce a large ash cloud – Eyjafjallajökull had such a kilometer-high cloud for days at the time international air traffic was paralyzed. Keflavik Airport has now announced that, like the regional airports in Iceland, it is not affected by the eruption and is instead in full operation.