Volcanic eruption forces Iceland spa to evacuate
Nearby thermal spa closed; guests evacuated
A volcano in Iceland erupted early Thursday morning for the third time in less than two months, spewing lava hundreds of feet into the sky and triggering the evacuation of one of the 25 Wonders of the World.
Iceland’s Meteorological Office said the Sylingarfell volcano in the southwestern part of the country began erupting at 6 a.m. local time, shortly after an intense burst of seismic activity reported about 30 minutes earlier.
The nearby Blue Lagoon thermal spa − one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions and 25 Wonders of the World − was closed when the eruption started and resort guests were evacuated, according to Icelandic national broadcaster RUV.
A stream of “steaming lava later spread across a road beside the spa,” the news agency reported.
No injuries had been reported by late Thursday morning.
The site is just over 2 miles northeast of Grindavik, a small coastal town that was evacuated before the December eruption.
Lava from the current eruption is flowing west and “the flow seems to be slightly less” than at the start of the eruption late last year, officials reported.
There was no immediate threat to Grindavik, or to a geothermal power plant in nearby Svartsengimajor, officials said, and civil defense officials reported no one was in the town at the time of the eruption.
The eruptive fissure is about 1.6 miles long, stretching from Mount Sundhnúkur, located south of the volcano, toward the eastern part of Mount StóraSkógfell.
The lava fountains reach between 160 feet and 262 feet high, and the volcanic plume rises nearly 2 miles above the fissure, the office said.
When the volcano erupted in December, it shot lava flowing away from Grindavik. But the second eruption, on Jan. 14, sent lava toward the town.
Earlier this week, the office warned of a possible eruption after “monitoring a buildup of magma, or semimolten rock, below the ground for the past three weeks,” the AP reported, adding that hundreds of small earthquakes had been measured in the area.
Contributing: The Associated Press