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The eruption started with little warning at 11:14 p.m. Wednesday
and created a fissure around 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) long. The
activity is estimated to be considerably smaller than the
previous eruption in August, Iceland’s meteorological office
that monitors seismic activity said.
“In the big picture, this is a bit smaller than the last
eruption, and the eruption that occurred in May,” Magnús Tumi
Guđmundsson, a professor of geophysics who flew over the scene
with the Civil Protection agency to monitor the event, told the
national RUV broadcaster.
While the eruption poses no threat to air travel, authorities
warned of gas emissions across parts of the peninsula, including
the nearby town of Grindavík.
Around 50 houses were evacuated after the Civil Protection
agency issued the alert, along with guests at the famous Blue
Lagoon resort, according to RUV.
The repeated volcanic eruptions close to Grindavík, which is
about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital,
Reykjavik, and has a population of 3,800 people, have damaged
infrastructure and property and forced many residents to
relocate to guarantee their safety.
“Grindavík is not in danger as it looks and it is unlikely that
this crack will get any longer, although nothing can be ruled
out,” Magnús Tumi said.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North
Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The
most disruptive 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.
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Keyton reported from Berlin.
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