Volcano Erupts In Iceland, Poses Risk To Fishing Town

A volcano erupted in Southwest Iceland on Sunday, posing an immediate threat to a nearby small fishing town although it had been evacuated earlier and no people were in danger, authorities have said.

Live video showed fountains of molten rock and smoke spewing from fissures in the ground across a wide area very close to the town of Grindavik.

“No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat,” Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson said on social media site X, adding there had been no interruptions to flights.

The eruption began early on Sunday north of the town, which just hours before had been evacuated for the second time since November over fears that an outbreak was imminent amid a swarm of seismic activity, authorities said.

Authorities built barriers of earth and rock in recent weeks to try to prevent lava from reaching Grindavik, some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of the capital Reykjavik, but the latest eruption appeared to have penetrated the town’s defences.

“According to the first images from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of Grindavík,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office IMO said.

Lava was flowing towards the town and had come within an estimated 450 metres (1,500 feet), the IMO said. The nearby geothermal spa Blue Lagoon had closed on Sunday, it said on its website.

Based on flow models, it could take the lava a few hours to reach Grindavik if it continued to flow towards the town, an IMO spokesperson told public broadcaster RUV.

“It is of course frightening to see how close this is to the town,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir told daily Morgunbladid.

REUTERS