Extract from ABC News
A volcanic eruption has begun in south-western Iceland near the capital Reykjavik following thousands of small earthquakes in the area in recent weeks, the country's meteorological office says.
Key points:
- The Department of Emergency Management said it was not anticipating evacuations
- More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the past four weeks
- Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hotspot
The Fagradals Mountain volcano was dormant for 6,000 years, and the Reykjanes Peninsula hadn't seen an eruption of any volcano in 781 years.
Initial aerial footage, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions.
The glow from the lava could be seen from the outskirts of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, which is about 32 kilometres away.
The Department of Emergency Management said it was not anticipating evacuations because the volcano is in a remote valley, about 2.5 kilometres from the nearest road.
There had been signs of a possible eruption recently, with earthquakes occurring daily for the past three weeks. But volcanologists were still taken by surprise because the seismic activity had calmed down before the eruption.
"I can see the glowing red sky from my window," said Rannveig Gudmundsdottir, resident in the town of Grindavik, only 8 kilometres from the eruption.
"Everyone here is getting into their cars to drive up there," she said.
Reykjavik's international Keflavik airport was not closed following the eruption, but each airline had to decide for themselves if they want to fly or not, Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.
"Flight color code is red but very little turbulence is seen on seismometers," the IMO tweeted.
Pictures on local media websites showed a bright red night sky. A picture posted on Twitter by the IMO showed smoke rising from brightly glowing lava streams.
The eruption posed no immediate danger to people in Grindavik or to critical infrastructure, IMO said.
"I think we couldn't hope for anything better than that," IMO volcanic hazards coordinator Sara Barsotti told Reuters.
Unlike the eruption in 2010 of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which halted approximately 900,000 flights and forced hundreds of Icelanders from their homes, this eruption is not expected to spew much ash or smoke into the atmosphere, IMO said.
Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, among the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hotspot as the two plates move in opposite directions.
The source of the eruption is a large body of molten rock, known as magma, which has pushed its way to the surface over the past weeks, instigating the earthquakes.
The number of quakes had slowed down in recent days, however, leading geologists to say that an eruption would be less likely.
More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the past four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000-3,000 earthquakes registered each year since 2014.
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