Volcano erupts in Iceland – as lava penetrates fishing town’s defences

A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland, sending lava flowing towards a fishing village that had to be evacuated overnight.

The semi-molten rock has come within 500 metres of the town of Grindavik – which also had to be evacuated in November before a massive eruption from the same peninsula.

In the weeks since, defensive walls had been placed around the volcano in hopes of directing magma away from the community.

But the barriers of earth and rock that were built north of Grindavik, home to around 3,800 people, have been breached and lava is on the move towards the town, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.

Based on flow models, it could take the lava a few hours to reach Grindavik if it continued to flow towards the town, an IMO spokesperson told Iceland’s state broadcaster RUV.

Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson wrote in a post on the X social media platform: “No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat.”

He added there had been no interruptions to flights.

The eruption came today after a series of earthquakes in the region.

“Lava is flowing a few hundred metres north of the town – this is 400 to 500 metres,” Kristin Jonsdottir, from the IMO, told Iceland’s state broadcaster RUV television.

“Lava flows towards Grindavik.”

The IMO said in a separate statement: “According to the first images from the coast guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of Grindavík.”

Sunday’s eruption is the fifth to take place in the Reykjanes peninsula since 2021.

It comes weeks after intense earthquake activity in the region culminated in a spectacular eruption in December, with lava emerging from a two-mile-long crack in the Earth’s surface.

December’s eruption started in the Svartsengi volcanic system following the complete evacuation of Grindavik and the closing of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist spot.

Grindavik was ultimately spared as the lava flowed in a different direction from the town.

Residents had been evacuated from their homes in November and had to stay away from the town for six weeks following a series of earthquakes and the eventual eruption.

They were allowed to return on 22 December.

On Saturday, rescuers were searching for a man who fell into a crack in the ground that opened up after last month’s eruption.

The man had been working to fill crevasses formed by earthquakes and volcanic activity in Grindavik, according to local media.

Hundreds of people have been looking for him since Wednesday but had to stop shortly before midnight on Thursday due to a rockfall.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages an eruption every four to five years.

The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.

Unlike Eyjafjallajokull, the Reykjanes volcano systems are not trapped under glaciers and are thus not expected to cause similar ash clouds.