A volcanic eruption in Iceland forces the town of Grindavik to be evacuated again

MADRID 21 Nov. () –

The Icelandic authorities have confirmed this Wednesday a new volcanic eruption in the southwestern tip of the island and that has forced the evacuation of the town of Grindavik, which has experienced similar episodes since the end of 2023 due to high magmatic activity.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) recorded an eruption at 11:14 p.m. (local time, 00:14 Spanish peninsular time) after a fissure opened minutes after a series of small earthquakes that caused pressure changes.

The fissure is expanding towards the northeast, so it does not affect Grindavik at the moment, and has an estimated length of 2.5 kilometers. The current situation suggests that this eruption is smaller than the last one recorded this summer, although it cannot be ruled out that it will continue to grow. The Coast Guard helicopter is flying over the spotlights to assess the size.

According to IMO updates published on its website, during the day on Tuesday a “quite low” seismic activity and an accumulation of magma were recorded, although it indicated that according to the data it was “unlikely” that it would erupt this month.

The area had remained dormant for almost 800 years until early 2020, when intense seismic activity began on the peninsula, and magma began to emerge in 2021. The current eruption is already at least the tenth since then.

One of the most disruptive volcanic events in the Nordic country’s recent history occurred in 2010, when the ‘Eyjafjallajokull’ volcano erupted with an explosion that released a column of ash so large that it paralyzed air traffic across Europe for weeks, bringing which caused the cancellation of 100,000 flights and affected more than 10 million people.