What happened?

A volcano in Iceland erupted occurred on Thursday for the second time this year! This fired lava up to 80 metres into the air. This is not a rare occasion as this as happened multiple times on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula since 2021. Intense earthquake activity began around 5:30 a.m. and the eruption started at around 6:00 am, 30 minutes later.

Was it in the same place?

The eruptive fissure was around 3 Km long, the Met Office said, adding that the outbreak was believed to be in the same location as the eruption that happened not to long ago.

Was it like previous eruptions?

The nearby geothermal spa Blue Lagoon had closed on Thursday, it said. The previous eruption in the area happened on January 14 and lasted around two days. With lava flows reaching the edges of the Grindavik fishing town, whose nearly 4,000 inhabitants had been evacuated, setting some houses alight. 

Thursday’s eruption took place some way from Grindavik and was unlikely to pose a direct threat to the town, however all inhabitants had still been evacuated, as this was thought to occur again due to all of the earthquakes and previous volcanic eruptions in the surrounding area.

Why might it have been worse than other times?

The Reykjanes outbreaks are so-called fissure eruptions which are often referred to as Icelandic-type. They do not usually result in large explosions or significant production of ash dispersed into the stratosphere.

What are they doing about it?

Despite downgrading the volcanic system’s threat level, the local authorities have warned of further eruptions as land continued to rise in the area due to magma accumulating underground.

Iceland, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Kentucky, holds more than 30 active volcanoes, making the north European island a prime destination for volcano tourism.