By Marco di Marco, Milo Boyd, (AFP)
A volcanic system on the Reykjanes Peninsula in the country’s south-west erupted late on Saturday for the fourth time in three months, sending orange jets of lava into the night sky.
It blew up just three miles away from the Blue Lagoon, a beautiful geothermal spa that attracts many tourists to the south west of the country. It is estimated that about 700-800 guests and employees were at the Blue Lagoon when the eruption began. A large plume of smoke could be seen rising above the warm water spa after the volcano erupted.
The lagoon shut to the public the other four times that volcanoes have erupted in Iceland in recent months, in what is turning out to be a particularly turbulent patch of activity.
As of this afternoon lava from the volcanic eruption is continuing to flow towards defences around the town of Grindavik, which have so far held the molten rock back from the evacuated community. Scientists said earlier today that the eruption appears to be weakening and will probably peter out within hours.
Iceland’s Meteorological Office said the eruption opened a fissure in the earth about two miles long between the mountains of Stora-Skogfell and Hagafell. It said on Sunday that lava is flowing south and south-east at about 0.6mph, and might reach the sea. Defensive barriers have been built to stop it inundating the main road along the peninsula’s southern coast.
No flight disruption was reported at nearby Keflavik, Iceland’s main airport. The eruption site is a few miles north-east of Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people about 30 miles south-west of the capital, Reykjavik.
The town was evacuated before the initial eruption on December 18, and a second eruption that began on January 14 sent lava towards the town. Defensive walls that had been bolstered after the first eruption stopped some of the flow, but several buildings were consumed by the lava.