GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano in Iceland erupted Saturday night for the fourth time in three months, sending orange jets of lava into the evening sky.
Iceland’s Meteorological Workplace stated the eruption opened a fissure within the earth about 3 kilometers (2 miles) lengthy between Stóra-Skógfell and Hagafell mountains on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
The Met Workplace had warned for weeks that magma — semi-molten rock — was accumulating beneath the bottom, making an eruption seemingly.
Tons of of individuals have been evacuated from the Blue Lagoon thermal spa, one in every of Iceland’s high vacationer sights, when the eruption started, nationwide broadcaster RUV stated.
No flight disruptions have been reported at close by Keflavik, Iceland’s primary airport.
The eruption web site is a number of kilometers (miles) northeast of Grindavik, a coastal city of three,800 individuals about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.
Grindavik was evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system woke up after nearly 800 years with a sequence of earthquakes that opened giant cracks within the floor north of the city.
The volcano ultimately erupted on Dec. 18, sending lava flowing away from Grindavik. A second eruption that started on Jan. 14 despatched lava towards the city. Defensive partitions that had been bolstered after the primary eruption stopped among the move, however a number of buildings have been consumed by the lava.
Each eruptions lasted solely a matter of days. A 3rd eruption started Feb. 8 and petered out inside hours.
RUV quoted geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson as saying that the most recent eruption is essentially the most highly effective up to now.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic sizzling spot within the North Atlantic, sees common eruptions and is extremely skilled at coping with them. Essentially the most disruptive in latest occasions was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed enormous clouds of ash into the environment and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
No confirmed deaths have been reported from any of the latest eruptions, however a workman was declared lacking after falling right into a fissure opened by the volcano.
