Lava has begun flowing from a volcano near Iceland's capital, after authorities began evacuating nearby communities. The meteorological office said an eruption is underway after previously warning of the threat.
A large fissure has opened on a volcano near GrindavikImage: CIVIL PROTECTION OF ICELAND/Handout/REUTERS
Advertisement
Iceland evacuated the town of Grindavik and the nearby Blue Lagoon on Tuesday as a volcano started spewing lava — the eighth eruption to hit the region since the end of 2023.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said "an eruption has started on the Sundhnuksgigar Crater Row" north of the fishing village Grindavik.
"The fissure is now about 500 meters (yards) long and has reached through the protective barrier north of Grindavík,'' it said in a statement. "The fissure continues to grow, and it cannot be ruled out that it may continue to open further south.''
Icelandic authorities began the evacuations on Tuesday morning after magma flows and a series of small earthquakes in the region indicated that the volcano would soon erupt.
A land of ice and fire
People living in some 40 homes in the town of Grindavik, which is near the volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, were told to leave after the magma flows were detected.
The community, located some 53 km (33 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik, was largely evacuated a year ago when the volcano, dormant for 800 years, came to life again.
The nearby Blue Lagoon luxury spa was also being evacuated, local media said.
Is climate change increasing Iceland's volcanic activity?
Researchers think melting glaciers are causing more magma to build up under Iceland, and may make volcanic eruptions more likely.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
'Crater of hell'
A drone image shows the beautiful but dangerous crater known as Viti, which derives from the Icelandic word for hell. In 2021, researchers discovered that the Askja volcano had expanded rapidly, growing by 11 centimeters (4 inches) in just a few months. Askja has since grown by a further 80 centimeters.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Measuring carbon dioxide bubbles
Researchers believe Askja has grown because 44 million cubic meters of magma have accumulated under the volcano, pushing it upwards and making eruptions more likely. Michelle Parks, a volcanologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Service originally from Australia, regularly measures the temperature in the bubbling Viti. A sharp rise in temperature would indicate that an eruption could be imminent.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Less ice — more magma?
Nobody knows when, or even if, Askja will erupt. Parks and her team want to find out why so much magma is accumulating under the volcano. They are pursuing a hypothesis that would have consequences not only for Iceland, but for people all over the world: is the retreat of glaciers as a result of human-caused made climate change leading to an increased accumulation of magma under volcanoes?
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Swimming in crater lake
Some courageous tourists even go swimming in the Viti crater. Researchers are investigating a basically simple theory: the enormous weight of glaciers pushes volcanoes down. When the ice retreats, the pressure on the Earth's crust and mantle lessens. This change in pressure could stimulate the dynamic forces beneath the volcanoes to produce more magma, which in turn may lead to eruptions.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Race against time
"Iceland is essentially one of the best places in the world to study this … because we have both volcanism and glaciers," volcanologist Parks told the Reuters news agency. Glaciers still lie upon more than half of Iceland's 34 active volcanic systems, but they are melting rapidly due to rising global temperatures.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Vanishing 'friends'
Mountain guide Iris Ragnarsdottir Pedersen leafs through an album with pictures of the Skeidararjokull glacier. She and her father, a volunteer glacier observer, have been watching the ice recede for years. This year, the glacier showed a retreat of 300 meters (984 feet). "It’s just devastating to see," said Ragnarsdottir Pedersen. "It’s like watching your friends disappear."
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Glaciers disintegrating
It's not just Skeidararjokull that's melting: these chunks of ice have broken away from the Fjallsjokull glacier. Over the past 130 years, Iceland's glaciers have lost around 16% of their volume, half of it in the last three decades alone. Scientists predict that around half of the remaining volume will have disappeared by the end of this century.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Risks from Antarctica to Alaska
So far, there have been few studies on the interaction between melting ice and volcanic activity in other parts of the world. However, researchers in the US believe 245 volcanoes around the world could be affected, from the Andes to Alaska and Kamchatka in Russia. Around 160 million people live in the vicinity of one of these volcanoes; 20,000 of them in the immediate vicinity.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
'We've got enough' magma
Volcanic gases billow over the flank of Askja. Preliminary modeling results from Parks' project have found that two to three times as much magma has formed under Iceland in the last 30 years as would have been the case without the glaciers retreating. "More magma is coming in underneath Iceland, and we just don't need it," said Parks. "We've got enough."
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
Threatened idyll
At the same time, Parks emphasizes it's too early to establish a causal link between climate change in the form of melting glaciers and increased volcanic activity; researchers around the world must first collect more data. One thing is certain: the small Icelandic town of Vik seen here would be flooded by melting glacier water if the nearby Katla volcano were to erupt.
Image: Stoyan Nenov/REUTERS
10 images1 | 10
The magma flow was accompanied by an intense storm of earthquakes similar to those that have preceded previous eruptions, the Met Office said.
So far, the 10 eruptions that have occurred south of Reykjavik on the peninsula since 2021 have not directly affected the capital or disrupted air traffic by spewing ash into the stratosphere.
Iceland is known as the land of ice and fire for its many glaciers and volcanoes.