A volcano in Hagafellnot far from the tourist “Blue Lagoon” and Grindavìk in Iceland it began erupting after a few weeks of intense seismic activity.
The confirmation came from the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO). “An effusive eruption began a few kilometers north-east of Grindavik” shortly after 22:30 GMT, the IMO announced in a press release, adding that the aviation color code had changed to red.
The spectacular images published continuously by Icelandic TV show the eruption of the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula with jets of glowing orange lava shoot from rifts in the ground, surrounded by clouds of red smoke. The emission of sulfur dioxide from the volcanic fissure on the Icelandic Reykjanes peninsula that opened with the eruption that began yesterday evening is about ten times higher than that of the eruptions recorded in the last two years, say Icelandic volcanologists quoted by national newspapers.
Despite fears that the emission of smoke and debris at high altitude could create problems for civil aviation activity, as had happened in previous years following the eruption of another volcano, Rejkyavik international airport remained open. “We hope for the best, but it is clear that this is a considerable eruption,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir wrote on Facebook, quoted by AFP. The police chief declared that in the eruption area, which had already been evacuated days ago, no one was in danger. “Now we wait to see what the forces of nature have in store,” President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson wrote in X. Vidir Reynisson, head of the Civil Protection department, urged the population to stay away from the area, telling local television: “This is not a tourist eruption.”