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Washington Post
01-04-2025
- Washington Post
Volcano erupts in southwestern Iceland after a nearby town and spa are evacuated
GRINDAVIK, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland that has erupted repeatedly for more than a year again belched lava and smoke into the air on Tuesday, just hours after authorities evacuated the few remaining residents of a nearby fishing village. The eruption began at 9:45 a.m. local time (0945 GMT), triggering warning sirens in the town of Grindavik where webcams showed molten rock spewing toward the community. It had subsided by late afternoon, though the volcano was still active, Iceland's Met Office said. Police and civil defense officials evacuated Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions, after an early morning earthquake swarm suggested an eruption was imminent. The community, located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, was largely evacuated in November 2023 when the volcano came to life after lying dormant for some 800 years. About 40 homes were evacuated on Tuesday, though police reported that some residents refused to leave their homes. 'Those individuals who choose to remain in the town don't seem to consider that I have 50 people involved in this operation, some of whom are volunteers,' Úlfar Lúðvíksson, police commissioner in South Iceland, told local broadcaster RUV. 'I would ask that more consideration be shown towards civil defense.' Iceland sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic . The most disruptive incident in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months. Flights were not affected by Tuesday's eruption.
BBC News
01-04-2025
- BBC News
Volcanic eruption begins in Iceland near Grindavik
A volcanic eruption has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula in south-west Meteorological Office said the eruption started around 09.45 local time (10:45 BST) just north of the small town of Grindavík. Less than an hour later, the crack that had opened in the ground was 700 metres (2296ft) wide and continuing to eruption occurred after hundreds of earthquakes had hit the area known as Sundhnúks Crater Row around 06:30 local Grindavík and the nearby Blue Lagoon spa, a popular tourist destination, had already been ordered to evacuate in anticipation of the eruption. Roads heading in and out of the town remain closed, but flights are currently not affected. As of 11:00 local time, Iceland's Meteorological Office (IMO) said the original fissure had extended southward and a new crack had urged any people remaining in Grindavík to leave. Earlier on Tuesday, several individuals had refused to follow the evacuation order, Icelandic media region's police chief, Úlfar Lúðvíksson, told local media that only around 40 houses had been occupied by residents, following previous volcanic of the 4,000 residents of Grindavík were permanently evacuated in November 2023, prior to eruptions in December 2023 and January, February and March length of the current magma tunnel that formed under the crater series in the area is about 11 km (6.8 miles) - the longest that has been measured since 11 November 2023, the IMO on current wind direction, gas pollution from the eruption will travel northeast towards the capital area, the IMO eruptions have occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula since last time the peninsula had a period of volcanic activity was 800 years ago - and the eruptions continued for has 33 active volcano systems and sits over what is known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between two of the largest tectonic plates on the planet.
