A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing massive lava flows that threaten to cut off the town of Grindav\u00edk and prompting the evacuation of the world-famous Blue Lagoon. <\/p>\n
Dramatic video and images from the scene showed fountains of red-hot lava shooting into the air along a 3.4-kilometer (two-mile) fissure near Mount Hagafell on the Reykjanes Peninsula. <\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s Meteorological Office said in a statement that \u201cthe first estimate of scientists is that the start of this eruption is more vigorous than in previous eruptions in the area.\u201d <\/p>\n
The eruption began around 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday following an earthquake at the Sundhn\u00faks crater, Iceland\u2019s public broadcaster RUV reported. The Met Office had earlier warned that a volcanic eruption was likely following \u201cintense seismic activity\u201d at the crater and a build-up of magma in its underground reservoir. <\/p>\n
Lava flows have cut off two out of three roads leading to the fishing town of Grindav\u00edk, and were steadily moving along a defensive barrier built to save the town and key infrastructure from being destroyed, according to the Met Office. <\/p>\n
\u201cLava is flowing outside the defense walls at Grindav\u00edk in several places, and lava is also starting to flow outside the walls at Svartsengi,\u201d V\u00ed\u00f0ir Reynisson from Iceland\u2019s Civil Defense told RUV. <\/p>\n
He warned that Grindav\u00edk is at risk of becoming completely cut off, though he added that the defense barriers were holding. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe houses in the west and farthest part of the town would have gone under the lava if it weren\u2019t for the defensive walls, but they are still standing and defending,\u201d Reynisson reportedly said. <\/p>\n
Grindav\u00edk, a town of about 3,000 people, was mostly evacuated before a previous eruption in December. Residents and responders who remain in the town have been urged to leave while they still can, though police told RUV that three residents are refusing to evacuate. <\/p>\n
Electricity to Grindav\u00edk was cut on Wednesday as a protective measure as lava flows closed in on high-voltage lines and hot and cold pipes in the ground, Kristinn Har\u00f0arsonar, production manager at energy company HS Orka, told RUV. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the high-voltage lines are gone, the pylons are badly damaged and some are on fire,\u201d the Civil Defense\u2019s Reynisson later said. <\/p>\n
Benedikt \u00d3feigsson from Iceland\u2019s Met Office told RUV that the beginning of this eruption was more powerful than previously due to more accumulated magma in the chamber. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot more lava flow than we\u2019ve seen before,\u201d he reportedly said. \u201cThis is reflected in today\u2019s massive lava flows.\u201d <\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X that there was no disruption to international or domestic flights. <\/p>\n
But for the third time in just over two months, the country\u2019s famous geothermal spa and tourist hotspot the Blue Lagoon was evacuated, according to its operations manager. <\/p>\n
Just under an hour\u2019s drive from Iceland\u2019s capital and largest city Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon is one of the country\u2019s most popular tourist attractions. The site is part of southwest Iceland\u2019s Reykjanes Peninsula \u2014 a thick finger of land pointing west into the North Atlantic Ocean from Reykjavik. <\/p>\n
Iceland is one of the most active volcanic areas on the planet. Rather than having a central volcano, the Reykjanes Peninsula is dominated by a rift valley, with lava fields and cones. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing massive lava flows that threaten to cut off the town of Grindav\u00edk and prompting the evacuation of the world-famous Blue Lagoon. Dramatic video and images from the scene showed fountains of red-hot lava shooting into the air along a 3.4-kilometer (two-mile) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}