Volcanic eruption places on fiery spectacle close to Iceland’s Grindavik | Volcanoes Information

A volcano in southwestern Iceland has erupted for the fifth time this yr. It’s Sundhnukagigar’s strongest eruption because the volcanic system turned lively three years in the past.

The fiery spectacle started shortly after the tip of an eight-week-long eruption that occurred between Hagafell and Stora-Skogfell on the identical Reykjanes peninsula.

The lava fountains reached 50 metres (164 ft) excessive and the size of the fissure was about 3.4km (2.1 miles), the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace stated in a press release.

Flights continued as ordinary on the capital Reykjavik’s Keflavik airport, based on the airport’s web site.

Wednesday’s was the eighth eruption since 2021 on the peninsula, dwelling to about 30,000 individuals after geological methods that had lain dormant for 800 years turned lively once more.

Such volcanic exercise has disrupted district heating, closed key roads and razed a number of properties within the Grindavik fishing city, to which only some residents have returned since an evacuation in late 2023.

Iceland’s civil defence was placed on excessive alert, police stated, and authorities once more ordered an evacuation of Grindavik.

The close by Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, recognized for its massive outside swimming pools, was shut and its company evacuated.

Residents consult with Iceland because the “Land of Hearth and Ice” – a tribute to its otherworldly panorama of mountain peaks, ice fields and fjords, a seismic hotbed positioned between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.