On Tuesday, April 1, authorities had been pressured to evacuate the city of Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon spa in southwestern Iceland as a volcano erupted.
That is now the eleventh time such an occasion has occurred since 2021, highlighting why the nation is named one in every of ‘hearth and ice.’ On account of this pure phenomenon, a pink alert has been issued, and tons of of small earthquakes have been felt.
In line with native police stories, roughly 40 houses within the city of Grindavik had been nonetheless occupied on the time of the eruption, regardless of earlier warnings having been issued.
What’s an Icelandic volcano eruption?
“The fissure is now roughly 500 metres lengthy and has breached the protecting barrier north of Grindavik,” Iceland’s Met Workplace mentioned in a press release. “The fissure continues to develop, and it can’t be dominated out that it might proceed to open additional to the south.”
The volcano, Sunddhnúksgígar, is situated to the south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, and at current, air site visitors has not been affected. Nevertheless, emergency providers are taking precautionary measures, because the Met Workplace confirmed that ‘a magma eruption has begun.’
Is the Baroarbunga volcano energetic?
That is in the identical space because the Baroarbunga volcano that erupted in January 2025, after having lain dormant for greater than 800 years. As reported within the todaysviralmedia, this resulted within the roads and houses of Grindavik being broken. This, in flip, led to a mass evacuation being organised, though some have since returned.
At the moment, President Gudni Th Johannesson mentioned, “A frightening interval of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula.” With consultants predicting that this sample of seismic exercise might proceed for many years and even centuries, he might be proper.
The opposite time an Icelandic volcano eruption had a big influence was again in 2010, when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano created a severe ash cloud. This resulted in disruption to transatlantic air journey for a lot of months till the ash totally dispersed.
Over to you – would the chance of a volcanic eruption deter you from visiting these locations most vulnerable?