Houses in Iceland’s Hafnarfjordur are seen as smoke billows in the distance, the night sky turned orange by lava.
An Icelandic volcano erupted and spewed lava into the sky overnight near a power plant, creating a remarkable sight to behold. It was less active Tuesday, after weeks of intense seismic activity southwest of Reykjavik.
The eruption, only three kilometers (1.8 miles) from the evacuated fishing port of Grindavik on the Reykjanes peninsula, began Monday at around 10:17 pm (2217 GMT) after a “swarm” of small tremors, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.
Interestingly, the volcano opened a fissure in the ground about four kilometers (2.5 miles) long, with the southern end just three kilometers from Grindavik.
In an update on Tuesday at 1430 GMT, the IMO said the lava flow was “estimated to be about one-quarter of what it was at the beginning of the eruption on 18 December, and a third of the original fissure is active.”
Furthermore, “The lava fountains are also lower than at the start of the eruption, reaching about 30 meters (98 feet) at their highest.”
Amid weeks of warnings from scientists, the authorities built reinforcements around the Svartsengi geothermal plant, which is just two kilometers from the eruption.
It supplies electricity and water to 30,000 people on the peninsula.
The live-streamed footage of the eruption showed glowing orange jets of lava spewing from a gash in the ground, surrounded by billowing clouds of red smoke against the dark winter sky. This is a truly mesmerizing sight that has left countless people in awe.
It’s beautiful to spectate this phenomenon when the sun rises around 11:00 am in the area just south of the Arctic Circle, and sets around 3:00 pm.
For weeks, experts had been anticipating an eruption in the area some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital Reykjavik, prompting the authorities to evacuate thousands of people.
The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, famed for its turquoise waters, is closed to visitors as a safety precaution.
Vidir Reynisson, head of the Department of Civil Protection, urged people to stay away from the area, telling a local television station: “This is no tourist eruption.”
The volcano, which has yet to be given a name, was located near the Sundhnukagigar crater row.
Fortunately, unlike the major Icelandic eruption in 2010 that grounded thousands of flights across Europe and North America, this one did not create an ash plume. Due to this, Reykjavik’s international airport remained open Tuesday.
For weeks, the Nordic country has been anticipating an eruption on the peninsula southwest of the capital.
New era
Since October, thousands of earthquakes had been detected on the Reykjanes peninsula, a possible precursor to an impending volcanic eruption. It is an incredible new era for the country that has left many in anticipation for what’s to come.
“Right now there is no immediate risk of infrastructure being threatened,” Grindavik mayor Fannar Jonasson told the daily Morgunbladid on Tuesday.
Roughly 4,000 people were evacuated from Grindavik on November 11 after scientists said a tunnel of magma was shifting beneath them. The series of small earthquakes—sometimes hundreds per day—had damaged roads and buildings, which lead to a significant impact on the community in the area.
