A volcano dramatically erupted in Iceland on Monday, with surprising bursts of lava and smoke illuminating the night time sky after weeks of seismic exercise brought on the evacuation of a close by town.
The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula started at round 10 p.m. neighborhood time, following an earthquake round an hour earlier, the Icelandic Meteorological Office stated in a statement.
The workplace stated that the eruption used to be placed shut to Hagafell, about three kilometers (about two miles) north of the city of Grindavík.
Iceland’s Coast Guard posted a video on Facebook displaying one of its helicopters at the scene, hovering over a lengthy line of glowing lava spurting from the fissure in the ground. The air is shrouded by using smoke and lit in glowing colorations of orange and red.
In a announcement Tuesday, Iceland’s authorities stated the fissure opening is nearly four kilometers long. It is the fourth eruption in the vicinity considering that 2021 and the biggest so far, the announcement added.
Last month, an evacuation order used to be issued for Grindavík and close by settlements stopping residents from staying in their residences in a single day as the chance of a volcanic eruption loomed, public broadcaster RÚV reported.
The city of extra than 3,000 people, which at one factor risked being in the course of flowing lava, is now clear of residents, RÚV reported, citing police. It is a famous area for travelers due to the fact it lies some 7 kilometers from the well-known Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.
The eruption does no longer pose a hazard to life, Iceland’s authorities stated in its statement. The location is closed to all traffic, it added, whilst strongly warning human beings now not to strategy the area.
While the eruption is no longer predicted to influence populated areas or imperative infrastructure in the coming days, and is no longer anticipated to attain Grindavík, it is releasing “considerable” poisonous gases, stated the Icelandic Tourist Board on Tuesday.
“People are strongly suggested in opposition to journeying the website of the eruption whilst responders and scientists check the situation,” the Tourist Board added.
There are presently no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and worldwide flight corridors stay open, the authorities said.
It brought that the eruption is labeled as a fissure eruption, which does now not generally end result in massive explosions or tremendous manufacturing of ash dispersed into the stratosphere.
In the first two hours of the eruption, thousands of cubic meters of lava have been being launched per second, in accordance to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. But the eruption’s intensity, and the stage of seismic exercise in the area, had reduced by means of early Tuesday, with lava spreading laterally from both aspect of the newly opened fissures.