A volcano has erupted in southwest Iceland, posing an immediate threat to a nearby fishing town that had been evacuated over fears of an outbreak, authorities say.
Key points:
- It is the second volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in less than one month
- Iceland had built barriers to protect the town of Grindavik but the lava has penetrated defences
- An emergency alert level has been declared, the highest on a three-level scale
Early-morning live streams from the site showed fountains of molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground, the bright orange lava flow glowing against the dark sky.
“No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat,” Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson said on social media site X, adding there had been no interruptions to flights.
The eruption began north of the town of Grindavik, which on Saturday was evacuated for a second time over fears that an outbreak was imminent amid a swarm of seismic activity, authorities said.
Authorities have been building barriers of earth and rock in recent weeks to try to prevent lava from reaching Grindavik, some 40 km southwest of the capital Reykjavik, but the latest eruption appeared to have penetrated the town’s defences.
“According to the first images from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of GrindavÃk,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office IMO said.
Lava was flowing towards the town and had come within an estimated 450 metres (1,500 feet), the IMO said.
Based on flow models, it could take the lava a few hours to reach Grindavik if it continued to flow towards the town, an IMO spokesperson told public broadcaster RUV.
It was the second volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland in less than one month and the fifth outbreak since 2021.
Last month, an eruption started in the Svartsengi volcanic system on December 18 following the complete evacuation of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents and the closing of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist spot.
More than 100 Grindavik residents had returned in recent weeks, before Saturday’s renewed evacuation order, according to local authorities.
Lying between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, two of the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hotspot as the two plates move in opposite directions.
In 2010, ash clouds from eruptions at the Eyafjallajokull volcano in the south of Iceland spread over large parts of Europe, grounding some 100,000 flights and forcing hundreds of Icelanders to evacuate their homes.
Unlike Eyafjallajokull, the Reykjanes volcano systems are not trapped under glaciers and are thus not expected to cause similar ash clouds.
Reuters