Powerful volcanic eruption shakes Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland

- Residents in Iceland’s coastal town of Grindavik saw their fourth volcanic eruption in the last three months, local media reported on Sunday.

Lava has flowed over the Grindavikurvegur, the road between the southwestern town and the rest of the Reykjanes Peninsula, according to public broadcaster RUV, which added that the eruption started at 8.23pm (2023GMT) local time on Saturday.

The source of the current eruption is near an earlier one that occurred on February 8, closer to the Stora-skogfell mountain summit, it reported.

According to reports, the fissure is roughly 3.5km (2.17 miles) long, with lava flowing south towards the defensive wall north of Grindavik, west towards Grindavikurvegur, and to the east. Grindavik and the nearby Blue Lagoon thermal baths were quickly evacuated, while the Keflavik Airport in the northwest and other regional airports were not impacted by the eruption and remain fully operational, added RUV.

The current eruption, closely monitored by the Icelandic Meteorological Office, is ‘the most powerful in the current system so far’, it cited geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson as saying. “Right now, the situation is that we are primarily monitoring the progress of the lava flows. One flows southeast towards the sea, but it travels very slowly. We also monitor a tongue that travels west, north of Svartsengi,” the RUV quoted the expert.

The report noted that the defensive walls appeared to be holding back the lava flow and directing it towards the sea, while another flow north of the walls was approaching a heating supply line but that there was still some distance to it.