Tourists evacuated after Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula hit by 12th eruption in four years
By Euronews Journey
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Vacationers and locals have been evacuated on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula after the twelfth volcanic eruption within the area since 2021.
Magma pushed up by the Earth’s crust, opening a fissure considered between 700 and 1,000 metres lengthy, the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace has stated. It belched columns of smoke into the air, and dramatic lava flows could be seen on dwell video of the eruption.
It comes after an eruption in April this yr breached protecting boundaries close to the fishing city of Grindavik, inflicting emergency companies to evacuate residents and vacationers staying on the Blue Lagoon Spa.
Vacationers and residents evacuated
The eruption doesn’t threaten any infrastructure presently, the IMO stated in a press release.
“Based mostly on GPS measurements and deformation indicators, it’s possible that this was a comparatively small eruption.”
Regardless of this, individuals have been evacuated from close by websites as a precaution. Residents of the city of Grindavík have been cleared. Attributable to ongoing volcanic exercise, the city has remained principally abandoned since its almost 4,000 residents have been evacuated in 2023.
Vacationers have been additionally evacuated from a campsite and the well-known Blue Lagoon spa – a five-star lodge resort, in accordance with Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV, which quoted the native police.
Have flights been impacted by the eruption?
Flights on the close by Keflavik airport within the capital of Reykjavik haven’t been impacted by the volcanic eruption.
Iceland, sometimes called the land of ice and hearth, has recorded a dozen volcanic eruptions since geological methods on its Reykjanes Peninsula reactivated 4 years in the past. Consultants say these eruptions within the space might proceed for many years and even centuries as a part of a brand new volcanic cycle.
In contrast to the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which grounded planes throughout Northern Europe for nearly every week, this latest string of eruptions on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula has not ejected massive volumes of ash into the stratosphere. Which means that air visitors hasn’t been disrupted.
Volcanic ash is harmful for aeroplanes as a result of it may possibly trigger engine failure and harm to varied necessary plane elements.
