Skift Take
The popular Blue Lagoon attraction has actually closed as a safety measure, but early signs are that the volcano’s activity might not disrupt Icelandic tourist too much.
Dawit Habtemariam
A volcano emerged in southwest Iceland on Sunday, posing an immediate hazard to a nearby little fishing town although it had actually been left earlier and no people were in risk, authorities stated.
Live video revealed water fountains of molten rock and smoke spewing from cracks in the ground across a broad location really near the town of Grindavik.
“No lives are in threat, although infrastructure may be under hazard,” Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson stated on social networks website X, including there had been no disruptions to flights.
The eruption started early on Sunday north of the town, which simply hours before had actually been left for the second time because November over fears that a break out impended amid a swarm of seismic activity, authorities said.
Authorities built barriers of earth and rock in recent weeks to attempt to prevent lava from reaching Grindavik, some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of the capital Reykjavik, however the most recent eruption appeared to have actually penetrated the town’s defences.
“According to the first images from the Coast Guard’s security flight, a fracture has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of Grindavík,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office IMO said.
Lava was streaming towards the town and had actually come within an estimated 450 metres (1,500 feet), the IMO said. The close-by geothermal spa Blue Lagoon had actually closed on Sunday, it said on its website.
Based upon circulation models, it might take the lava a couple of hours to reach Grindavik if it continued to flow towards the town, an IMO spokesperson told public broadcaster RUV.
“It is obviously frightening to see how close this is to the town,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir informed daily Morgunbladid.
2nd Volcanic Eruption in Less Than One Month
It was the second volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland in less than one month and the fifth break out because 2021.
Last month, an eruption started in the Svartsengi volcanic system on Dec. 18 following the total evacuation a month earlier of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents and the closing of heaven Lagoon, a popular tourist spot.
More than 100 Grindavik locals had actually returned in recent weeks, before Saturday’s renewed evacuation order, according to regional authorities.
Iceland, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Kentucky, boasts more than 30 active volcanoes, making the north European island a prime destination for volcano tourist– a specific niche segment that attracts countless thrill candidates.
In 2010, ash clouds from eruptions at the Eyafjallajokull volcano in the south of Iceland spread over large parts of Europe, grounding some 100,000 flights and forcing hundreds of Icelanders to leave their homes.
Unlike Eyafjallajokull, the Reykjanes volcano systems are not caught under glaciers and are hence not expected to trigger comparable ash clouds.
(Modifying by Tomasz Janowski and Frances Kerry)
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