On this photograph supplied by the Civil Safety taken from the Coast Guard helicopter, a view of lava because the volcano erupted close to Grindavík, Iceland, on Sunday.
Icelandic Civil Safety through AP
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Icelandic Civil Safety through AP
On this photograph supplied by the Civil Safety taken by the Coast Guard helicopter, a view of lava because the volcano erupted close to Grindavík, Iceland, on Sunday.
Icelandic Civil Safety through AP
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted for the second time in lower than a month on Sunday, sending lava snaking towards a close-by group and setting at the least one home on fireplace.
The eruption, which started shortly earlier than 8 a.m. native time, got here after authorities evacuated the city of Grindavik following a swarm of small earthquakes, the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace mentioned. Hours later, a second fissure opened close to the sting of the town and lava rushed towards the homes.
“We're simply trying on the cameras and there's actually nothing else we are able to do,” resident Reynir Berg Jónsson instructed Icelandic RUV tv.
Grindavik is a city of three,800 individuals about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. The group had been evacuated in November after a sequence of earthquakes opened massive cracks within the floor between the city and Sýlingarfell, a small hill to the north. The close by Blue Lagoon geothermal spa – one in every of Iceland's greatest vacationer sights – can be briefly closed.
Folks watch from the north because the volcano erupts close to Grindavík, Iceland, on Sunday.
Marco Di Marco/AP
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Marco Di Marco/AP
Folks watch from the north because the volcano erupts close to Grindavík, Iceland, on Sunday.
Marco Di Marco/AP
The volcano finally erupted on December 18, and residents had been allowed to return to their houses on December 22.
Within the following weeks, defensive partitions had been constructed across the volcano in hopes of directing the lava away from the group. However barrier partitions constructed north of Grindavik have been breached and lava is shifting in direction of the group, the climate workplace mentioned.
“This continues to shock us,” Benedikt Ófeigsson of the meteorological workplace instructed RUV. “Issues slowed down after the eruption began, however about half an hour or an hour in the past, they began to select up pace once more. We now not see a slowdown within the metropolis.”
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hotspot within the North Atlantic, averages an eruption each 4 to 5 years.
Probably the most disruptive in current instances was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed ash clouds into the environment and disrupted transatlantic journey for months.
However Sunday's eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula will not be anticipated to launch massive quantities of ash into the air. Operations at Keflavík airport proceed as regular, mentioned Gudjon Helgason, press officer of airport operator Isavia.
Earlier than final month's eruption, the realm recognized extensively because the Svartsengi volcano had been dormant for about 780 years. The volcano is just a few kilometers west of Fagradalsfjall, which was dormant for six,000 years earlier than bursting to life in March 2021. The most recent eruption was extra highly effective than these of current years.
