On Friday, the Reykjanes peninsula’s southwest saw the formation of a second fissure, according to Icelandic authorities, but the region’s volcanic activity had diminished after lava began to gush out for the sixth time since December.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) announced on Thursday that a new eruption had begun at 9:26 pm (2126 GMT) that evening, following a sequence of tremors, following weeks of warnings.
Orange lava was seen erupting from a lengthy fissure captured on camera, which the IMO assessed to be 3.9 kilometers (2.4 miles) long.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) declared on social media early on Friday that a second fissure had formed north of the first one.
In an later update, the agency said that “the intensity of the eruption has decreased significantly since yesterday.”
It added that the “most active fissure is the one which opened during the night.”
This is the sixth eruption to hit the area since December, coming just two months after the end of a previous eruption that lasted more than three weeks.
Since little lava flowed south from the most recent eruption, the adjoining fishing community of Grindavik, which was evacuated on Thursday night, was not as vulnerable.
The 22 or 23 houses in the community were occupied at the time, Ulfar Ludviksson, the Sudurnes region chief of police, said Icelandic media.
A December eruption forced the majority of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents to flee, and while they have subsequently been permitted to return between eruptions, very few have chosen to stay overnight.
The IMO also noted that there would be “northerly and northwesterly winds at the eruption site” until Saturday, which therefore would spread gas pollution from the site south and southeast — carrying it out to sea.
The Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries until March 2021.
Further eruptions occurred in August 2022 and in July and December 2023, leading volcanologists to warn that a new era of seismic activity had begun in the region.
Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.
It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
