Flows pose danger to infrastructure in Grindavik, and hundreds of people are evacuated from nearby Blue Lagoon
Emergency teams worked through the night to bolster defensive barriers around the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik as lava from the fourth volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula since December flowed towards it.
After weeks of warnings that semi-molten rock was building up under the ground, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption, at 8.23pm local time (2023 GMT) on Saturday, had opened a nearly 3km-long fissure in the earth between two mountains.
Lava was flowing mainly south and south-east at a rate of about 1km an hour overnight and could reach the ocean, the IMO said. Defensive dykes and barriers were being reinforced to stop the “significantly wider” lava bed wrecking the main coastal road.
By midday on Sunday, scientists said flows appeared to be slowing somewhat but still posed a danger to infrastructure in and around Grindavik. “Seismic activity has decreased since the eruption began,” the IMO’s Pálmi Erlendsson told the broadcaster RÚV.
I’ve been to Iceland once. Loved it.
Is there an appropriate way to visit and view all this volcanic activity? I don’t want to pressure any emergency work by unwanted visitation
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Emergency teams worked through the night to bolster defensive barriers around the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik as lava from the fourth volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula since December flowed towards it.
After weeks of warnings that semi-molten rock was building up under the ground, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption, at 8.23pm local time (2023 GMT) on Saturday, had opened a nearly 3km-long fissure in the earth between two mountains.
Defensive dykes and barriers were being reinforced to stop the “significantly wider” lava bed wrecking the main coastal road.
The Svartsengi power plant, which supplies electricity and water to about 30,000 people on the Reykjanes peninsula, was evacuated and has been run remotely since the first eruption in the region, and dykes have been built to protect it.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the nearby Blue Lagoon thermal spa, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions, RÚV reported, as footage showed smoke billowing and red-orange magma bubbling from the earth.
The few residents who had returned to their homes in Grindavik since the last eruption in February, which cut off heating to more than 20,000 people as lava flows destroyed roads and pipelines, were safely evacuated, officials said.
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