(Reykjavik) A second fissure has opened on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, but volcanic activity has subsided after lava began erupting for the sixth time in the area since December, authorities said.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported on Thursday that a new eruption occurred at 21:26 (local time and GMT) after a series of earthquakes.
Videos of the eruption show orange lava gushing from a long fissure about 3.9 kilometers long, according to the IMO’s estimate.
Early Friday morning, the organization announced in a social media post that a second fissure had opened north of the first.
In a later update, the agency said that “the intensity of the eruption has decreased significantly since yesterday.”
She added that “the most active crack is the one that opened during the night.”
The weather agency, which also monitors geological events, had previously reported “considerable seismic activity” at the northern end of the fissure.
PHOTO ICELAND STATE POLICE PUBLIC DEFENSE DEPARTMENT, PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Videos of the eruption show orange lava gushing from a fissure about 3.9 kilometers (2.4 miles) long, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office’s estimate.
About an hour after the eruption began, an earthquake measuring 4.1 magnitude was measured in the area.
This is the sixth eruption in Iceland since December. The last one lasted for more than three weeks from the end of May on the same Reykjanes peninsula.
Sudurnes police chief Ulfar Ludviksson told Icelandic media that the evacuation of the nearby fishing village of Grindavik had gone well.
Only about 20 houses in the village were occupied. Most of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents were evacuated in November, before the December eruption.
While residents have since been allowed to return between eruptions, only a few stayed overnight.
According to IMO, no lava flowed towards Grindavik during the last eruption.
The IMO also noted that “northerly and northwesterly winds will blow over the eruption site” through Saturday, which would cause gas clouds from the flow to drift out to sea.
Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon spa announced in a statement late Thursday that it had decided “as a precaution to evacuate and temporarily close all of its operational units.”
Until March 2021, the Reykjanes Peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries.
Further eruptions occurred in August 2022, and again in July and December 2023, leading volcanologists to warn that a new era of seismic activity had begun in the region.
Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than any other European country.
It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fissure in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.