A volcanic eruption has restarted in Iceland, with lava flow threatening the already seriously devastated fishing village of Grindavik.
The eruption, the seventh on the same volcanic rift since late 2023, began at 9:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday “just north of the protective barrier by Grindavik,” according to a Met Office statement.
The eruptive rupture reached behind the defensive measures that had spared the town in recent events, according to the report.
Reykjavik, which lies about about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, has been unaffected by the recent outbursts, and air traffic at nearby Keflavik international airport is not expected to be disrupted.
The southwest peninsula has awoken after an 800-year sleep, beginning with seismic activity in 2020 and progressing to an escalating sequence of lava outbreaks.
The molten rock is erupting from rifts in the ground, producing constant flows but little ash.
Earthquakes and dangerous fissures have caused severe devastation in Grindavik, a fishing village that once housed roughly 1% of Iceland’s population.
Some residents have remained in the town, evacuating when each eruption begins.
“The length of the magma dyke under the Sundhnuksgigar Crater Row that has already formed is about 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) long which is the longest it has been measured since November 11, 2023,” the Met Office said.
The volume of magma in the area is the largest since the eruption sequence began at the end of that year, it said last month.
Other infrastructure in the area includes the Svartsengi power plant, which is operated by HS Orka hf, as well as a variety of firms focused on geothermal energy.
The Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s main tourist attraction, is also nearby.
These assets have been spared destruction, although roads, water, and electrical pipes have all needed to be repaired multiple times.
Iceland is one of the world’s volcanic hotspots because of its location on the mid-Atlantic ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates separate.
Scientists warn that a new age of activity has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
Before the Grindavik eruptions, Icelanders had not seen volcanic activity of this magnitude in half a century.
The most recent equally deadly catastrophe occurred in 1973 in the Westman Islands off its southern shore.
