Huge volcanic eruption recorded in Iceland after weeks of earthquakes

Hundreds have been seen returning to an evacuated part of Iceland that was cleared just weeks before a volcano erupted on Monday, following weeks of intense earthquake activity.

The eruption at the Sundhjuka crater, on the Reykjanes peninsula, began lighting up the night sky at 10.17pm on Monday, after a series of earthquakes hit the area.

Video footage of the moment of the eruption showed Iceland’s black night sky lit up a deep orange colour as molten rock flew into the air. 

A massive fissure of lava, four kilometres long and growing, is carving through the Reykjanes peninsula, following the eruption. Local media reports that the fissure is currently just 2.5km north of the town of Grindavík. 

The fissure is getting so large that scientific instruments put out in the rural region to measure and track its development are at risk of being destroyed. The Norwegian Meteorological Agency estimated that 100 to 200 cubic meters of lava is spewing out per second, which is ‘many times more than in previous eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent years.’

Hundreds were seen returning to the region, despite several Icelandic authorities warning them to stay away for their own safety, though the government has said the eruption doesn’t currently present a risk to life. 

Iceland Police said in a statement: ‘An eruption has begun. We ask people not to be in front of the responders and not to go in the direction of the eruption. It is important that roads and other things are as accessible as possible.’ 

Icelandic police also said they had raised their alert level as a result of the outbreak and the country’s civil defence warned the public not to approach the area while emergency personnel assessed the situation. 

Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir, from the Icelandic national defence, has also warned people not to go near the site of the eruption. 

But many have been pictured going towards, not away from, the eruption point.  

One image showed the Reykjanesbraut, a key Icelandic highway in the area, lit up with white headlights from cars travelling towards, not away from, the crater. 

Elín Björk Jónasdóttir, an expert in the Ministry of the Environment, said that exhausted rescue workers have been working more or less for three years. ‘Now think about someone other than yourself and follow the guidelines of the public safety. Please.’ 

Iceland’s president, Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, said shortly after the eruption: ‘It is not clear what damage it can cause, but now we rely on our scientists as well as all those who need to do monitoring and other operations. 

‘Above all else, we protect human life but we do all the defense of structures to the best of our ability. I send warm greetings to the people of Grindavík and those who now work on the scene.’

Speaking following the eruption, Fannar Jónasson, mayor of Grindavik, said Icelandic news service Visi: ‘I’m just, like others, trying to get information. But this seems like quite an explosion in the early stages. But you don’t know anything yet. It’s going to be a long night.’ 

He added that a few hundred meters can make all the difference, no matter in which direction the lava flows. 

Also speaking to Visi as the blast began, volcanologist Þorvald Þórðarson admitted the eruption was the worst-case scenario.

He explained: ‘We were talking about two scenarios a few days ago, one of which was that everything was going to relax and die out, you were hoping that was what was going on. 

‘The other is that this stretch of the crust above the intrusion would have reached its tolerance limit and that it would start to erupt. This is what we feared the most.’

Benedikt Ófeigsson, a geophysicist at the Norwegian Meteorological Agency, said the fissure, which is growing every minute, is only a short distance away from the town of Grindavík. 

‘There is a rather rapid development of the eruption. We saw it rise at around 10.17pm, it has spread very quickly and has moved to the south west. Is about 2.5 kilometers north of Grindavík. The eruption itself is a little further north than that.’

However, Kristín Jónsdóttir, head of natural hazards at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said the agency expects this growth to die down soon. 

‘The good news is that it is now usually the ducks that die out first and that is what we expect to happen in the near future. 

‘That the activity begins to be drawn to certain craters, and usually the center of the crack is the place where the most activity occurs, and that crack is clearly north of the watershed.’

Grindavik, a fishing town of 3,400, sits on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 31 miles southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. 

It is also near the Svartsengi geothermal power station, which provides up to 74.4MW of energy to the country. The government said it is currently assessing the risk to nearby energy infrastructure. 

not far from Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s main facility for international flights. 

Reykjavik’s international airport, which is located nearby, remained open. ‘At the moment, there are no disruptions to arrivals or departures at Keflavik Airport,’ it said on its website.

Jake Deakin, 26, a marketing manager from Manchester, is currently stranded on the tarmac after his flight back to the UK was delayed.

He booked a short stay for his girlfriends birthday a few months ago after the couple had talked about how they wanted to go to Iceland together.

But, he said, he and his girlfriend got more than they bargained for with what was meant to be a relaxing weekend away.

‘We were at the blue lagoon four hours ago! They said it had calmed down, and with the blue lagoon opening again you’d think things had calmed down.’

The plane had been sat on the tarmac being de-iced when Jake and other passengers noticed an orange glow out the window.

‘We noticed it then the crew mentioned it after a few others had seen it. I saw a post on twitter which confirmed then told others. We’re all ok, it’s obviously stressful but still sat on the plane at the gate.’

He said passengers are ‘Waiting for further updates at the moment… The latest update was there’s no update!’

He said they would have missed the eruption had the flight taken off on time. Sharing pictures of his view from the plane, Jake said the fissure is ‘definitely getting wider’.

On their website, the Met Office said the volcano eruption started at 10.17pm following an ‘earthquake swarm’ at 9pm.

Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir, from the Icelandic national defence, also reiterated warnings that people shouldn’t go near the eruption site, according to the Mirror. Nevertheless, large crows have gathered on vantage points to look at the lava spurts illuminating the sky.

This comes after the volcano was hit by more than 1,000 earthquakes in just 24 hours on November 9, igniting fears of an imminent eruption.

Data from Iceland’s Met Office shows that within the past hour, there have been 11 earthquake within a five km radius of Grindavík. 

Fearing a significant outbreak on the Reykjanes peninsula, authorities last month evacuated the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the fishing town of Grindavik and closed the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. 

Geophysicist Benedikt Ofeigsson said in November that there were clear signs that huge magma corridor under the Reykjanes Peninsula was expanding.

The area around the Fagradalsfjall had braced itself for an eruption after huge chasms ripping apart homes and roads in Grindavik.

On November 16, magmatic gas was detected at a borehole in Svartsengi – 2.3 miles north of Grindavik – which experts said was a signal that an eruption is imminent. 

An eruption of molten rock from the magma tunnel beneath Reykjanes was the most likely scenario following weeks of seismic activity, the head of the volcano department at the weather service Kristin Jonsdottir told RUV radio station last month.

Monitoring indicated that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, extends under the community, Iceland’s Meteorological Office said. The town of 3,400 is about 31 miles southwest of the capital, Reykjavik.

Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson previously said that if an eruption were to happen, he expects that it could erupt into the sea and says Grindavik needs to be ‘reorganised’ in order to mitigate the disk of future widespread destruction.

‘I’m also worried about the port. It doesn’t take much to destroy this port, fill it with lava,’ Haraldur told Iceland’s Morgunblaðið (MBL) newspaper.

‘There are both cracks there in the harbour and even if the magma comes up somewhere outside, it flows into the harbour, because this is the depression. 

‘So, in the big picture, this town needs to be completely reorganised,’ he added.

Asked by MBL’s reporter if he envisages a future in which the people of Grindavik can return to their homes, he said: ‘What didn’t people do in Vestmannaeyjar (a town hit by an eruption in 1973)? I think the town should be reorganised.’

Scientists have said that the eruption is unlikely to produce a plume of smoke like the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption, which grounded flights globally and cost 1.5bn and 2.5bn euros (£1.3-2.2bn).

The peninsula in recent years saw several eruptions in unpopulated areas, but the current outbreak was believed to pose an immediate risk to the town, authorities have said.

Reykjanes is a volcanic and seismic hot-spot southwest of the capital Reykjavik. In March 2021, lava fountains erupted spectacularly from a 500-750-metre-long (1,640-2,460-foot-long) fissure in the ground in the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system.

Volcanic eruptions are not uncommon in Iceland, home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.

But the Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries until 2021.

Since then, three eruptions have struck – all in remote, uninhabited areas – and volcanologists say this could be the start of a new era of activity in the region.

Previous eruptions near the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula took place in 2021, 2022 and earlier this year.

In 2010, the eruption of Iceland’s long-dormant Eyjafjallajokull volcano – an ice-capped volcano more than 1,660 metres tall – shot huge amounts of ash into the atmosphere. That massive, explosive eruption was not fatal, but forced the cancellation of around 100,000 flights and left more than 10 million travellers stranded.

Situated in the North Atlantic, Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.