A fishing community and popular tourist destination in southwest Iceland was evacuated late Wednesday after a volcano erupted for the seventh time in a year, officials said.
At 2314 GMT, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported an eruption from the Sundhnukagigar volcanic fissure near Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
IMO specialist Benedikt Ofeigsson told public radio RAS2 that no infrastructure was currently threatened, but Grindavik, a tiny fishing village noted for its surrounding Blue Lagoon thermal spa, had been evacuated.
Volcanoes on the peninsula have not erupted in eight centuries until March 2021, when a period of increased seismic activity started.
Images transmitted live showed red-orange lava streaming from a lengthy crack surrounded by dense smoke.
The new eruption is smaller than the previous one, which occurred at the end of August, according to an IMO statement.
“The outpourings are lower, and the lava is not flowing as fast,” Ofeigsson noted.
The majority of Grindavik’s 4,000 people were evacuated a year ago, just before the first volcanic explosion in the region.
Since then, nearly all of the homes have been sold to the state, and the inhabitants have left.
“About fifty houses were occupied in recent nights,” the civil protection department stated.
During another eruption in January, three buildings in the community were destroyed by fire.
Volcanologists cautioned that volcanic activity in the region has reached a new phase.
Iceland has 33 active volcanoes, more than any other European country.
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Source: NDTV
