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A volcano erupted in southwestern Iceland on Sunday after a series of earthquakes in the early morning, the country’s meteorological office said — threatening the nearby coastal town of Grindavik with streams of slow-moving lava.
The eruption began around 8 a.m. local time on Iceland’s southern peninsula, officials said, near where an eruption prompted the evacuation of the town’s nearly 4,000 residents last month.
Photos of Sunday’s eruption, taken from a Coast Guard helicopter and shared by Icelandic police officials, showed lava flowing on the ground and lighting up the night sky, reaching the vicinity of roads and buildings. About an hour after the eruption began, officials said, lava had reached within 1,500 feet of Grindavik’s northernmost buildings.
In an interview with national broadcaster RUV, seismologist Kristin Jonsdottir estimated that the lava would take hours to reach the town if it continued to flow in the same path. “What matters is where the lava is flowing. It is very important now to monitor it,” she said.
Officials estimated the eruption’s location as south-southeast of Hagafell and said evacuations in the area were underway.
Iceland volcano erupts after weeks of warnings and a town’s evacuation
According to the meteorological office, earthquakes shook the area starting around 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. Officials said the level of seismic activity was comparable to that recorded ahead of a Dec. 18 eruption, although Sunday’s tremors were farther south.
Iceland’s civil protection agency said police began evacuating Grindavik residents at 4 a.m., after authorities detected earthquakes and concluded that an eruption was probably imminent. Authorities said vacationers in the nearby Svartsengi area, where Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon is located, had been evacuated.
On Sunday morning, Iceland raised the public safety alert level from “danger” to “emergency.”