The volcano located near the city of Grindavik, in Iceland, erupted this Monday after several months of seismic activity. At 10:17 p.m. local time, Fagradaslfjall began spewing lava after an hour of intense earthquakes that were being closely monitored by the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Incredible scene above the volcano in Iceland pic.twitter.com/3zUN0qoiDp
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 19, 2023
Fortunately, the small fishing town of Grindavik had been evacuated in mid-November and the Blue Lagoon spa remained closed until further notice. However, the danger is still present since, the BBC reports, the lava is heading towards the northeast of Grindavik, and can be seen from the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, which is about 42 kilometers northeast of the small coastal town.
Iceland's only international airport continues to operate normally
Closer is the Kelavík airport, the only one that carries hosts international flights in the country and which, for the moment, continues to operate normally. This was reported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson:
A volcanic eruption has started on the Reykjanes Peninsula. The eruption is about 3,5 km long close to Sundhnúka, north of Grindavik where evacuation orders have been in place. There are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open. pic.twitter.com/w9YB5wa6HR
— Bjarni Benediktsson (@Bjarni_Ben) December 19, 2023
For his part, the president of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, reported through his profile on X (formerly Twitter), that Iceland had activated the state of emergency protocol, and that for the moment, the priority was "to protect lives and infrastructure":
An eruption has begun near the evacuated town of Grindavík. Our priorities remain to protect lives and infrastructure. Civil Defence has closed off the affected area. We now wait to see what the forces of nature have in store. We are prepared and remain vigilant.
📷 @Vedurstofan pic.twitter.com/yKx4WKU61c— President of Iceland (@PresidentISL) December 19, 2023
