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A volcano in southwestern Iceland started erupting Monday with lava fountains reaching as much as 330 toes and the glow seen miles away within the middle of the capital, Reykjavik.
The placement of the fissure poses a danger to the close by Svartsengi geothermal energy plant and to the city of Grindavík, which was evacuated final month due to heightened seismic exercise.
“We’re a worst-case state of affairs,” stated Thorvaldur Thordarson, a volcanologist in Iceland. “The eruption seems large, and solely about two kilometers from main infrastructure.”
Hundreds of earthquakes had been detected in Iceland since late October, in accordance with the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace. In November, with properties and roads being broken, the authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated Grindavik, a city of greater than 3,000 folks close to the volcano.
Extra not too long ago, the Meteorological Workplace warned of a “important chance of a volcanic eruption in coming days.”
The nation has seen this earlier than, loads.
In simply the previous two years, there have been three eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland’s most populated nook and residential to its capital. When Grindavik was ordered evacuated on Nov. 11, the authorities stated in an announcement that the nation was “extremely ready for such occasions.”
“Iceland has one of many world’s simplest volcanic preparedness measures,” it stated on its web site.
The authorities raised the aviation alert to orange, as a result of a volcanic eruption may pose a danger to plane flying within the North Atlantic if ash spewed into the sky.
One of the vital memorable eruptions in Iceland’s latest previous concerned the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010. Whereas that eruption was comparatively small and brought about no fatalities, the influence was widespread as a result of a ensuing ash cloud grounded a lot of Europe’s air journey for greater than every week.
The Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EYE-a-fyat-la-jo-kutl) volcano had been dormant for almost two centuries earlier than it sprang again to life greater than 13 years in the past.
Iceland has loads of volcanoes.
Volcanic eruptions are usually not unusual in Iceland, which has fewer than 400,000 residents and about 130 volcanoes. For the reason that nineteenth century, not a decade has passed by with out one, Iceland’s vacationer web site tells guests. The incidence of eruptions stays “totally random.”
The nation straddles two tectonic plates, that are themselves divided by an undersea mountain chain that oozes molten sizzling rock, or magma.
The present seismic exercise has not affected certainly one of Iceland’s best-known volcanoes, Katla, which some scientists fear is due for an eruption. Katla has erupted 5 occasions since 1721, at intervals starting from 34 to 78 years. The final main one was in 1918.
Egill Bjarnason contributed reporting from Reykjavík, Iceland.
