A new volcanic eruption began this Sunday morning north of the fishing port of Grindavik, in the southwest of Iceland, whose inhabitants were urgently evacuated overnight. The seismic activity had sharply accelerated during the night and the few dozen inhabitants who were resettled in Grindavik were evacuated around 3 a.m. (local time and GMT), according to Icelandic public radio and television.
The eruption began around 8 a.m. north of Grindavik, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, and surveillance images show large flows of bright orange lava along a fissure in the Icelandic daybreak. “A crack has opened on both sides of the defenses that have started to be built north of Grindavík,” the IMO writes in its bulletin. “According to measurements taken by the coast guard helicopter, the perimeter is now approximately 450 meters from the northernmost houses in the town,” he continues.
A sector with strong activity in recent weeks
This is the fifth volcanic eruption in Iceland in almost three years, the previous one taking place on the evening of December 18 in the same area, located about forty kilometers southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Grindavik, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants, was evacuated on November 11 as a precaution after hundreds of earthquakes caused by the movement of magma under the earth’s crust – a precursor to a volcanic eruption. These earthquakes damaged the city, creating large cracks in the roads and in houses and public buildings.
Shortly after the eruption of December 18, residents were allowed to return there briefly and then permanently since December 23, before being urgently evacuated during the night. Only a few dozen residents had returned to their homes. Authorities on Saturday evening issued an order to evacuate the city by Monday due to seismic activity and its impact on existing crevasses in the city. So they had to pick up the pace during the night.
This decision also follows the disappearance on Wednesday of a 51-year-old Icelander who was working to fill a crevice in a private garden when the ground suddenly gave way under his feet. After intense searches for forty-eight hours, the authorities decided to put an end to it Friday evening due to the dangerous nature of the place. The man, who was not found, had fallen more than thirty meters into a crevasse.