Image: (APA/AFP/JEREMIE RICHARD)
An eruption has started just northwest of Litli-Hrútur mountain, the Icelandic weather agency Vedurstofa announced on its website on Monday. Dense plumes of smoke could be seen on live images from the area on the sparsely populated Reykjanes Peninsula in the early evening, but no surface lava flows from the angle.
However, photos taken by the agency showed red-hot lava spurting out of an elongated crack in the ground. The eruption began around 4.40 p.m. (local time), Vedurstofa wrote on Facebook – in Central Europe it was already early evening at that time. It is assumed that the crack in the earth is about 200 meters long. Scientists are in the area to take measurements.
The authority linked the report with a warning to those who wanted to go straight to the natural spectacle: The hike to the site of the eruption was long and the landscape challenging – it was therefore recommended to wait and follow the instructions of civil protection.
Thousands of earthquakes in the region
The volcanic area is about 40 kilometers southwest of Reykjavik. The last volcanic eruptions in the area were in August 2022 and before that in March 2021, after they had been announced by numerous earthquakes. This time too there had been thousands of earthquakes in the region in the past few days, most recently on late Sunday evening the most violent of the current earthquake swarm with a magnitude of 5.2.
Experts had expected a new outbreak due to the tremors. As in 2021 and 2022, the risk to the population was classified as low.
How long the lava flow will last is unclear. The eruption in 2021 had caused lava fountains to shoot up again and again for almost half a year, the eruption in 2022 was shorter. The natural spectacle attracted many volcanologists, but also hikers and tourists. In general, the outbreaks had not caused much unrest among the Icelandic population.
Source: Nachrichten
