Reykjavik – Icelandic authorities mentioned on Friday {that a} second crack had fashioned on the southwestern Reykjavik peninsula. Lava began to erupt for the sixth time Within the space since December. After weeks of warnings, Iceland’s Meteorological Workplace (IMO) mentioned Thursday {that a} sequence of aftershocks adopted a brand new eruption at 9:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. Jap) that night.
video showed Orange lava is erupting from an extended fissure, estimated to be 2.4 miles IMO.
Earlier Friday, the IMO introduced on social media {that a} second fissure had opened to the north of the unique, but it surely mentioned volcanic exercise remained principally on the first fissure.
The Met Company, which additionally displays geological occasions, beforehand reported that there was “appreciable seismic exercise” on the northern finish of the fissure.
Getty by way of Almanavernadild/Anadolu
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 was recorded within the space about an hour after the eruption.
That is the sixth eruption to hit the area since December, coming simply two months after the final eruption that lasted greater than three weeks ended.
The police chief of the Sudurnes area, Ulfar Ludviksson, instructed Icelandic media that the evacuation of the close by fishing village of Grindavik had gone nicely.
He mentioned that at present 22 or 23 homes are occupied within the village. Most of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents was taken out In November, earlier than the December eruption, and whereas residents have been allowed to return between eruptions, only some have chosen to remain in a single day.
In keeping with the IMO, no lava flowed in the direction of Grindvik within the newest eruption.
Iceland’s common Blue Lagoon thermal spa vacationer attraction mentioned late on Thursday that it had taken the “precautionary measure of evacuating and quickly closing all our working items”.
The Reykjanes Peninsula had not skilled an eruption for eight centuries till March 2021. With additional eruptions in August 2022 and July and December 2023, main volcanologists warned {that a} new spherical of seismic exercise had begun within the area.
Iceland is house to 33 energetic volcanic techniques, the best quantity in Europe. It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rift within the ocean flooring separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
