Iceland: Reykjanes volcano erupts for 2nd time in weeks

A volcano erupted in southwestern Iceland for the second time in less than a month on Sunday, lighting up the skies over the northern European island country and sending lava into a fishing town.

The town of Grindavik was already evacuated overnight, authorities said.

The 3,800 residents of the town had only been only allowed to return home in late December after a series of earthquakes and cracks and openings in the earth forced them to leave their homes in November.

"No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat," Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Television footage on Sunday afternoon showed lava reaching some of the most exposed houses, setting one aflame. 

President Johannesson also said that there was no interruption to flights. This issue is often foremost in everyone's minds when an Icelanic volcano erupts following the major disruption to global air traffic lasting weeks after the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Sunday's magmatic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (roughly 30 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, is not of the type that's likely to release large amounts of ash into the air. 

What we know about the eruption

The eruption on Sunday followed hundreds of earthquakes that shook the region, with the eruption having started at 7:57 a.m. GMT/UTC, the Iceland Meteorological Office said

"The fissure opening is southeast of the Hagafell mountain," the meteorological office said. "The southern most part of the fissure is about 900 meters from the nearby fishing town of Grindavik."

It's the fifth time a volcano erupted on southwest Reykjanes peninsula since 2021. After the massive eruption in December in the same area, defensive walls were built around the volcano in the hopes of directing the magma away from the community.

But the walls of the barriers built north of Grindavik have been breached and lava is on the move toward the community, the meteorological office said.

"This continues to surprise us," Benedikt Ofeigsson at the Icelandic Meteorological Office told Iceland's RUV television. "Things were slowing down after the eruption started, but about half an hour or an hour ago they started to pick up speed again. We are no longer seeing a slowdown in the town."

Iceland has more than 30 active volcanoes, making the country a destination for volcano tourism  — a niche segment that attracts thousands of thrill-seekers hoping to see the full ferocity of nature close up.

rm/msh (Reuters, AP)