Iceland volcano erupts, spewing lava towards city close to nation’s major airport

A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland for the second time in lower than a month, sending semi-molten rock spewing towards a close-by settlement.

The eruption simply earlier than 8 a.m. Sunday got here after a swarm of earthquakes close to the city of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace stated. The group was evacuated in a single day, Iceland’s RUV tv reported.

“Lava is flowing a couple of hundred meters north of the city, that is 400 to 500 meters,” Kristín Jónsdóttir from the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace informed Iceland’s RUV tv. “Lava flows in direction of Grindavik.”

Residents of Grindavik have been beforehand evacuated from their properties in November and needed to steer clear of the city for six weeks following a collection of earthquakes and an eventual volcanic eruption. They have been allowed to return on Dec. 22.

The city of three,800 close to Iceland’s major airport was evacuated Nov. 10 when an earthquake swarm led to cracks and openings within the earth between the city and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north. The close by Blue Lagoon geothermal spa — considered one of Iceland’s largest vacationer sights — additionally closed quickly.

Within the weeks since, defensive partitions had been positioned across the volcano in hopes of directing the magma away from the group. However the partitions of the obstacles constructed north of Grindavik have been breached and lava is on the transfer towards the group, the meteorological workplace stated.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic scorching spot within the North Atlantic, averages an eruption each 4 to 5 years. Probably the most disruptive in current occasions was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed enormous clouds of ash into the environment and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.