The Manila Times

Iceland volcano erupts for 5th time in 6 months

A volcano in southweste­rn Iceland erupted on Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing red lava that once again threatened the coastal town of Grindavik and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.

The eruption began in the early afternoon following a series of earthquake­s north of the town of 3,800 people that was largely evacuated in December, when the volcano came to life after centuries of dormancy and put on an impressive show of nature’s power.

Although activity began to calm down by early evening, the eruption was estimated to be the area’s most vigorous so far, as lava shot 50 meters (165 feet) into the sky from a fissure that grew to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in length, the Icelandic Meteorolog­ical Office (IMO) said.

Barriers built to protect Grindavik deflected the flowing lava that cut off two of the three roads leading to town and was close to reaching the third.

“It’s a much larger volume that’s on the move right now headed for town,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaste­r RUV. “The lava has already conquered [a lot].”

Workers and anyone still in town were ordered to leave earlier in the day, police said. The Blue Lagoon thermal spa — one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attraction­s — was evacuated before the eruption began, RUV said.

At one point, a dark plume of ash boiled up over the crater from an explosive interactio­n of magma hitting groundwate­r, scientists said.

The cloud did not rise high enough to initially pose any threat to aviation, but scientists were closely monitoring the situation, the IMO’s Jóhanna Malen Skúladótti­r told RUV.

Grindavik, which is about 50 km (30 mi) southwest of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, has been threatened since a swarm of earthquake­s in November forced an evacuation in advance of the initial December 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption overwhelme­d some defensive walls and consumed several buildings.

The area is part of the Svartsengi volcanic system that was dormant for nearly 800 years before reawakenin­g.

The volcano erupted again in February and March. The February 8 eruption engulfed a pipeline, cutting off heat and hot water for thousands of people.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, sees regular eruptions and is experience­d at dealing with them. 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.