- A volcano erupted late Monday evening on the Icelandic Reykjanes peninsula, northeast of the town of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office announced.
- According to the authority, the eruption was preceded by a swarm of earthquakes that began at 9:00 p.m. (local time).
Geophysicist Benedikt Ofeigsson from the Norwegian Meteorological Agency said the eruption was located at the Sundhnjuka crater, according to local media reports. At the moment it is difficult to say whether infrastructure or the town of Grindavík is in danger.
Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson wrote on Facebook that it was still unclear what damage the eruption could cause. He asked local people to follow all recommendations from emergency services “at this dangerous moment”.
Residents evacuated in November
The eruption had been feared – dozens of earthquakes had occurred in the past few weeks. On November 11, the 4,000 residents of Grindavik were evacuated as a precaution after hundreds of earthquakes were triggered by the movement of magma beneath the earth’s crust, a precursor to a volcanic eruption.
Since then, they have only been allowed to go to their homes during certain time slots during the day. The well-known Blue Lagoon thermal baths were also temporarily closed, but reopened last Sunday. According to reports, there were no guests there at the time of the eruption.
The peninsula south of the capital Reykjavik had been spared from eruptions for eight centuries, until March 2021. Since then, there have been two more eruptions, in August 2022 and July 2023, which volcanologists see as a sign that volcanic activity in the region is increasing again. Thirty-two volcanic systems are considered active in Iceland.