Moment Iceland volcano erupts AGAIN sending lava fountains spewing out and smoke filling the sky: Evacuations underway
This is the moment a volcano near Iceland’s capital erupted yet again, spewing fountains of lava and smoke and forcing multiple evacuations.
The eruption began at 23:14 at the Sundhnúks crater on the Reykjanes peninsula, with a ‘small earthquake‘ occurring at 10:30pm.
It is 20 miles south-west of Reykjavik, where the most recent eruption ended on September 6.
This will be the tenth eruption in three years, the country’s meteorological office said.
The nearby fishing town of Grindavik, home to nearly 4,000 residents before an evacuation order in December last year, remains largely deserted due to the threat from lava flows.
But the remaining 50 to 60 residents, the Svartsengi Power Station and the Blue Lagoon, a spa facility with hotels and large natural pools, have been evacuated.
It looks like the gas pollution will go to the south and out to sea, so there won’t be any ill-effects on locals.
Dramatic video and photographs show a wall of magma lighting up the sky tonight.
A volcano near Iceland’s capital erupted yet again, spewing fountains of lava and smoke
The eruption began at 23:14 at the Sundhnúks crater on the Reykjanes peninsula, with a ‘small earthquake ‘ occurring at 10:30pm
Those at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near the town of Grindavik have also been evactuated
At the moment, flights to and from Keflavík Airport are operating as usual and according to schedules.
Iceland, with nearly 400,000 inhabitants, is located on the fault line between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
This makes it a seismic hotspot with geysers, warm-water springs and dozens of volcanoes.
Mayor Fannar Jónasson said this eruption came as a shock, with the next one expected at the end of the month.
He said: ‘But that is how unpredictable nature is.’
The lava flow is flowing to the west, but the speed is currently unknown. It is between Sýlingarfell and Stóra Skógfell.
The Svartsengi geothermal power plant on the Reykjanes peninsula has been evacuated
Lava is seen flowing from the Sundhnúks volcano on May 30 of this year
Lava near the town of Grindavik, located in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, on March 17
Benedikt Ófeigsson from the Norwegian Meteorological Agency told local media Channel 2: ‘There is currently nothing in danger, and if this does not develop much differently than it has been doing, the infrastructure should escape this quite well.’
Icelandic authorities have erected barriers to divert the streams of molten rock away from the town of Grindavik, the power station and the Blue Lagoon.
Scientists have warned that Reykjanes is likely to experience repeated volcanic outbreaks for decades, possibly even centuries.
But the eruptions are not expected to cause the level of disruption seen when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano burst in 2010, spreading ash clouds across Europe and grounding some 100,000 flights globally.
