After Days Of Seismic Activity, A Volcano Near Reykjavik Erupts
Iceland’s government has announced that a volcano near the capital of Reykjavik has started erupting following intense seismic activity over the past few days, the nordic nation’s government said.
The eruption started at about 1:18 p.m. on Wednesday when lava started flowing out of a fissure that was formed in the Fagradalsfjall Mountain, located about 15.5 miles from Reykjavik’s metropolitan area and nine miles from Keflavik International Airport. It is one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes.
After Days Of Seismic Activity, A Volcano Near Reykjavik Erupts
As a matter of fact, experts said that the fissure eruption occurred near the site of the eruption last year, which only ended six months ago.
“We have been anticipating that a volcanic eruption would occur somewhere in this area since the series of earthquakes started last weekend,” Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said in a statement.
In our opinion, what we know so far is that the eruption does not pose any risk to populated areas or critical infrastructure.
Due to the fact that this is a fissure eruption, the government does not expect that there will be large explosions or a significant amount of ash being spewed into the stratosphere as a result of the eruption.
Unlike last year’s eruption, this one could cause large amounts of gas pollution, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, despite the fact that the government states that there have been no flights disrupted to or from the country and that international flight corridors remain open.
An expert in volcanology, Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, who participated in a surveillance flight over the eruption center, said he expects the lava flow from the fissure to be about five to 10 times greater than the flow that accompanied the start of last year’s eruption.
The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland caused hundreds of people to evacuate and aircraft to be grounded due to the ash and dust clouds that covered the skies, making it the most destructive explosion the country had seen in decades.
