new volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula

This is the fourth eruption since December in this area, where some 28,000 people live.

The spectacle is, as always, gripping. Icelandic police declared a state of emergency on Saturday March 16 after lava erupted from a new volcanic fault on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. This is the fourth eruption in this area since December.

A “Volcanic eruption started between Stora Skogfell and Hagafell on the Reykjanes Peninsula”in the southwest of the country, announced the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (IMO). “According to the first evaluations” made from images and aerial photographs, “the eruption is considered larger (in terms of magma discharge) than the three previous eruptions”said the IMO, stressing that the estimate is based on the first hour of “eruptive activity”.

The casting advances at one kilometer per hour

Icelandic Civil Protection announced the dispatch of a helicopter to precisely locate the new crack. Police also declared a state of emergency due to the eruption. According to the IMO, the lava flow erupted near the site of the previous eruption on February 8.

Shortly after 10 p.m. GMT (11 p.m. Paris time), the end of the lava flow was some 200 meters from the barriers protecting the east of the small port town of Grindavik – evacuated, according to local media – and was moving at a speed of about one kilometer per hour. Lava was also flowing westward, as on February 8, and the length of the fissure was estimated at 2.9 kilometers.