Volcano leaves Iceland in the cold
North of Sylingarfell, Iceland —A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday for the third time since December, spraying streams of lava up to 80m into the air and triggering an emergency warning as thousands of households lost heating in the middle of winter.
Bright orange molten rock spewed from cracks in the ground in the Reykjanes peninsula and lava crossed a road near the Blue Lagoon — a luxury geothermal spa — that had to close due to the eruption.
The intensity of the outbreak had eased by Thursday afternoon, said the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes.
The lava flow hit water pipes in the region just south of the capital, disrupting the supply of geothermally heated water used to warm homes and leading the Civil Protection Agency to raise its alert level to emergency status.
Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport also lost access to hot water, but said it had otherwise maintained operations as usual.
The temperature in the area stood at -7°C and was forecast to drop to -10°C in the evening.
Rikke Pedersen, who heads the Nordic Volcanological Centre research group based in Reykjavik, said more than 20,000 people had lost access to hot water.
The Civil Protection Agency asked people in the affected area to use only one small electrical heater per household to prevent blackouts. Restoring hot water via an emergency pipeline that was already under construction could take days, it said.
Volcanic outbreaks in the Reykjanes peninsula are fissure eruptions, which do not usually cause large explosions or significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere. However, scientists fear they could continue for years, and Icelandic authorities have started building dykes to divert burning lava flows away from homes and critical infrastructure.
LAVA FLOW
The lava stream also came within 1km of the peninsula’s Svartsengi geothermal power plant, Pedersen said. As the lava flowed, workers were trying to fill in gaps in the protective dykes built along the road.
The latest eruptive fissure, the sixth outbreak since 2021, was roughly 3km long, Iceland’s meteorological office said. Intense earthquake activity began at about 5.30am and the eruption started 30 minutes later. A plume of smoke rose 3km into the air, according to the Met Office.
The previous eruption in the area started on January 14 and lasted about two days, with lava flows reaching the outskirts of the Grindavik fishing town, whose nearly 4,000 inhabitants had been evacuated.
Thursday’s eruption took place some way from Grindavik and is unlikely to pose a direct threat to the town, Icelandic geophysicist Ari Trausti Gudmundsson said.
Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson posted an image of flames and smoke in the distance on social media, saying that was the view from his residence. “As before, our thoughts are with the people of Grindavik who cannot reside in their beautiful town. This too shall pass,” Johannesson wrote.