a new volcanic eruption has started, without disrupting air traffic

A volcanic eruption, the fourth in two years, began on Monday December 18 in Iceland. “An effusive eruption began a few kilometers northeast of Grindavik”, on the peninsula of the capital Reykjavik, announced the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO). She happened “following an earthquake around 9 p.m.”he said, adding that “the estimated length of the crack is approximately 2.8 km, three times larger than during the last eruption last summer.”

According to images from local media, whose cameras have been installed near the volcano for weeks, incandescent orange lava gushes vigorously from a fissure. “It’s not a tourist eruption and you have to observe it from a very far distance”warned the head of civil protection and emergency management in Iceland. “Our thoughts are… with the local population, we hope for the best, but it is clear that this is a considerable eruption“, wrote the head of the Icelandic government, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, on Facebook. Local police indicated that the population was not in danger in the current state of the eruption.

“At the moment there are no disruptions to arrivals or departures at Keflavik Airport”, the operator of Icelandic airports said on its website, traffic being relatively low Monday evening. The IMO said the aviation color code had temporarily changed to red, before quickly returning to orange in the absence of ash clouds.