COPENHAGEN: A volcano erupted on Wednesday (Jul 16) in southwest Iceland, authorities mentioned, with dwell media photos exhibiting it belched smoke and dramatic flows of glowing scorching yellow and orange lava, the newest in a sequence of outbreaks close to the capital lately.
Also known as a land of ice and hearth, the North Atlantic island nation with its many glaciers and volcanoes has now skilled a dozen eruptions since geological methods on its Reykjanes peninsula reactivated in 2021.
Magma pressured by the earth’s crust opened an enormous fissure of size between 700m and 1,000m, Iceland’s meteorological workplace mentioned, with the primary indicators of the eruption giving scant warning.
“(It does) not threaten any infrastructure presently,” the workplace mentioned in an announcement. “Primarily based on GPS measurements and deformation alerts, it’s possible that this was a comparatively small eruption.”
Flights at Keflavik airport within the capital of Reykjavik weren’t affected, its net web page confirmed.
Public broadcaster RUV mentioned individuals had been evacuated from the Blue Lagoon, a luxurious geothermal spa resort, and the close by city of Grindavik, citing police.
Grindavik, dwelling to almost 4,000 earlier than an evacuation order in 2023, has stayed principally abandoned since, for worry of the periodic menace from lava flows and associated earthquakes.
The Reykjanes eruptions haven’t but posed a menace to Reykjavik, nor ejected giant volumes of ash into the stratosphere, so air site visitors has not been disrupted.
Consultants have mentioned the eruptions within the space may recur for many years, and even centuries.
The fissure eruptions, because the outbreaks are identified, are characterised by lava flows rising from lengthy cracks, slightly than from a central crater
