In a second day of volcanic activity, southwestern Iceland was again blanketed by lava and smoke, leading to increased apprehensions of spreading pollution. As the eruption of the volcano caused an evacuation of a spa resort, these fears were amplified. The fearsome spectacle of molten rock spouting into the night sky was first seen on the Reykjanes peninsula on Thursday of the preceding week.
Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Centre, reported a reduced flow from the volcano after the initial eruption, although the duration of the eruption is still uncertain. “The intensity of fountaining and output was high initially, then rapidly declined, but this does not indicate the duration of the activity,” Pedersen says. A warning was issued by the Meteorological office about the possible movement of gas pollution from the eruption site towards the south and southeast driven by the wind.
On Thursday, the well-known Blue Lagoon spa, noted for its geothermally heated outdoor pools, had to evacuate its guests and remained closed on the following day. “We were simply tourists expecting a lovely day,” said Dennis Murphy, a US real estate broker from Massachusetts, who was visiting there with his daughter. The moment was filled with the gripping spectacle of earth-shaking eruptions. While being evacuated, they saw the sky turning red.
The evacuation was marked with a sense of urgency, as Murphy expressed that the staff were quickly putting their belongings into bags and insisting that they should leave. Roughly 1,300 people consisting of guests and staff were present at the spa during the incident, as reported by the Icelandic daily Morgunbladid.
According to Pedersen, the initial outpour of lava from the volcano was at a rate of 2,000cubic m per second, similar to the last eruption in May. The fissure in the volcano, which symbolised the sixth eruption since December, had extended to five kilometres from 3.9 kilometres by late Thursday.
While the nearby fishing town of Grindavík had previously experienced threats of burning lava and earthquakes due to past eruptions, it was not directly affected this time, as reported by the meteorological office. Fortunately, the lava didn’t reach a nearby road, according to Pedersen.
Despite the turmoil, air traffic from Keflavik Airport in the capital was unaffected on Friday, as confirmed on the airport’s website. This report was provided by Reuters and is copyrighted by Thomson Reuters 2024.