Volcano erupts near Iceland's capital Reykjavik

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Volcano erupts near Iceland's capital Reykjavik​

BBC News
Saturday 20th March 2021

Fagradalsfjall lies about 30km (19 miles) south-west of Reykjavik

A volcano has erupted south-west of Iceland's capital Reykjavik, the country's meteorological office says.

It is warning the public of falling rocks and boulders, and also landslides as the eruption began at Fagradalsfjall on Reykjanes Peninsula.

This comes after the area recorded more than 50,000 earthquakes in the past three weeks.

In 2010, the eruption of another volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, brought air traffic to a halt across Europe.

However, the eruption of Fagradalsfjall is not expected to spew out much ash or smoke, so aviation should not suffer disruption.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office says the eruption of Fagradalsfjall was confirmed on Friday evening via webcams and satellite images.

A coastguard helicopter was sent to survey the area, about 30km (19 miles) from Reykjavik.

It later sent first images of the lava snaking its way down after the eruption.

A magnitude 3.1 earthquake was recorded 1.2 km from Fagradalsfjall just several hours earlier.

Iceland frequently experiences tremors as it straddles two tectonic plates, which are drifting in opposite directions.

The country is the only place in the world where the mid-Atlantic rift is visible above the surface of the ocean.

Icelandic volcano erupts near Reykjavik

Meteorologists say the last known eruption in the area was about 800 years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Iceland volcano eruption: Onlookers flock to see Mount Fagradalsfjall​

BBC News
Monday 22nd March 2021

Thousands have flocked to a volcano in Iceland which erupted near the capital, Reykjavik.

Lava started to burst through a crack in Mount Fagradalsfjall on Friday evening, in the first eruption of its kind in more than 800 years.

The site was initially blocked off, but from Saturday afternoon people were allowed to make the trek.

"It's absolutely breathtaking," Ulvar Kari Johannsson, a 21-year-old engineer, told the AFP news agency.

"It smells pretty bad. For me what was surprising was the colours of the orange: much, much deeper than what one would expect," he added.

Icelanders had been bracing themselves for an eruption for several weeks, after the island nation recorded more than 50,000 recent earthquakes.

Around 300,000 cubic metres (10.5 million cubic feet) of lava have poured out, experts say, but the eruption is deemed to be relatively small and controlled.

By Monday, the site was blocked again due to high levels of gas pollution.

Iceland volcano eruption: Onlookers flock to see Mount Fagradalsfjall

People have trekked to Mount Fagradalsfjall after lava started bursting out on Friday evening.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Icelandic volcano could erupt for years, creating 'perfect tourist' attraction
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Nikolaj Skydsgaard
Publishing date:Mar 24, 2021 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
People get up close as lava flows from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano some 40 km west of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, on March 23, 2021.
People get up close as lava flows from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano some 40 km west of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, on March 23, 2021. PHOTO BY JEREMIE RICHARD /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
COPENHAGEN — A volcano in Iceland spewing lava into the sky since it erupted last Friday could continue its spectacular display for years, potentially becoming a new tourist attraction on the island known for its natural wonders.

Thousands of Icelanders have flocked to the site of the eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, some 30 kilometres southwest of the capital, hoping to be awed by the rare lava fountains and even to cook a meal on the scorching crust of magma.


Drone footage filmed over the crater shows the molten lava bubbling and spurting, and gushing down the sides of the volcano.

“It’s a perfect tourist eruption,” volcanology professor at the University of Iceland, Thorvaldur Thordarson, told Reuters.

“With the caveat though, don’t go too close.”


To cope with the hoard of visitors, authorities in Iceland set up a 3.5 kilometre (2.2 miles) hiking trail to the eruption site and are patrolling the area to prevent onlookers from venturing into hazardous areas polluted by volcanic gasses.

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“People were hiking from many different directions into the area,” Agust Gunnar Gylfason, project manager at the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, told Reuters.

Gylfason estimated more than 10,000 people had ventured to the site since Friday evening, some of whom had needed rescuing due to the harsh weather and traveling without enough food or proper clothing.

Since the initial eruption, lava has steadily seeped out of the volcano at a rate of between 5 to 10 cubic metres per second, Thordarson said, a flow strong enough to ensure the lava does not solidify and close the fissure. For now.

“If it drops below three cubic metres, it’s very likely that the eruption will stop,” Thordarson said.

He compared the lava flux to that of the Pu’u ‘O’o eruption in Hawaii, which began in 1983 and continued to erupt for 35 years.

“It could end tomorrow or it could still be going in a few decades.”

Icelandic volcano could erupt for years, creating 'perfect tourist' attraction

COPENHAGEN — A volcano in Iceland spewing lava into the sky since it erupted last Friday could continue its spectacular display for years, potentially becoming…

torontosun.com

 

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Shame I can't go there and see it myself, what with foreign holidays being illegal.

 

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Incredible moment drone crashes into erupting Icelandic volcano, caught on camera​