Iceland volcano eruption appears set to be ‘a lot bigger’ than earlier occasions, officers warn: Lava bears down on houses as island is hit by 200 earthquakes and civilians are evacuated

A volcano eruption near a populated area in Iceland could be ‘much larger’ than previous events, officials warned as defences were quickly overrun this morning.

The Icelandic Civil Defence warned that the eruption on the Sundhnuksgigar Crater Row could continue to swell given the huge amount of magma built up underground.

Astonishing footage seen on afarTV monitoring cameras showed a long curtain of lava fountains spanning the fissure long during the dramatic eruption.

Dr Agust Gudmundsson, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, told MailOnline that the eruption is expected to be ‘bigger than before’ as magma has been accumulating underground for several months.

‘There was a large volume moving up in the subsurface, indicating there is a lot of magma available… so we expect this to be a bigger one than before,’ he said.

While the fissure – so far only around 700 metres long – is still quite small, concern remains for the village at the base of the site.

‘The eruption came up relatively far to the south and unfortunately a tiny part of the fissure came up inside, south of the protection barrier,’ Dr Gudmundsson explained.

‘Lava is, at the moment, flowing towards the town. It has not reached the town.’

The fissure emerged after an ‘earthquake swarm’ of more than 200 tremors rocked the region, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Fortunately, it appears to have followed the same path as previous events, making it more predictable, with authorities believed to be already preparing water pumps to manage the flow.

‘If the the fissure propagates further to the south, closer to the town, then of course it would be very, very grave,’ Dr Gudmundsson warned. ‘But we hope it doesn’t go so far.’

Efforts were underway earlier this morning to evacuate the fishing village of Grindavik.

The five-star Blue Lagoon hotel, at the base of the volcano, was evacuated and all guests moved to other hotels as the eruption began.

Helga Árnadóttir, a hotel manager, said guests had to be woken up as soon as it became apparent a ‘magma shower’ was underway.

The region is susceptible to occasional eruption, and today’s marks the eighth to hit the area since the end of 2023. 

The Reykjanes Peninsula was devastated by a series of major eruptions between December 2023 and December 2024, following intense quakes in November 2023. 

But having not erupted since November last year, monitoring geologists suspect a significant magma build up under the surface.

Dr Gudmundsson told MailOnline that the eruption had been anticipated, and appeared to be following a 2,300-year-old path.

This might make it easier for responders to anticipate the course of the flow. 

He said it was ‘difficult to say’ for how long the eruption might continue. Some in the past have lasted from a few days to a few weeks and some ‘longer than that’, he said.

‘The thing we know is that there is a lot of magma there… It’s a question of how much of it is going to go to the surface.’ 

It is also unlikely that earthquakes will continue on the same scale, with the fissure having already emerged. 

Astonishing scenes this morning followed a Met Office warning last week that an eruption ‘remains likely’, citing the accumulating magma accumulation.

‘The most likely scenario is that this period of magma buildup will end with a magma intrusion and/or an eruption, likely emerging first in the area between Sundhnúkur and Stóra-Skógfell,’ it reported on March 25. 

‘Emergency responders in Grindavík have reported that earthquakes can be felt in the town, and signs of deformation are also visible there, suggesting that fault movements could occur within the town itself,’ it said.

Benedikt Ófeigsson, director of deformation measurements, said that signs of eruption had been recorded after seismic activity began underground.

The earthquake swarm was followed by deformations and pressure changes in boreholes operated by energy company HS Orka.

‘Both independent measurements were a clear sign of the onset of a magma intrusion,’ the IMO said.

An eruption last rocked the region in November, which in turn was the seventh eruption in a year.

Most of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents were evacuated in late 2023, shortly before the first volcanic eruption in the area.

Since then, almost all the houses have been sold to the state, and most of the residents departed.

RUV said the region’s police commissioner, Ulfar Ludviksson, reported that recently, around 40 houses in Grindavik were occupied by residents.

Volcanoes on the peninsula had not erupted for eight centuries until March 2021, when a period of heightened seismic activity began.

Volcanologists warned that volcanic activity in the region had entered a new era.

Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than any other European country.

It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fault in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and causes earthquakes and eruptions.