Reykjavik — Icelandic authorities announced Friday that a second fissure had formed in the southwest of the Reykjanes Peninsula after lava began to flow for the sixth time The volcano in the region has been erupting since December. After weeks of warnings, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) announced Thursday that a new eruption had begun at 9:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. Eastern Time) that evening, following a series of earthquakes.
A video shows orange lava erupting from a long fissure, which IMO estimates to be 2.4 miles long.
Early Friday, the IMO announced on social media that a second fissure had opened north of the first, but it said volcanic activity remained mainly on the first fissure.
The weather agency, which also monitors geological events, had previously reported that there was “considerable seismic activity” at the northern end of the fissure.
Civil Protection Department/Anadolu via Getty
About an hour after the eruption began, an earthquake measuring 4.1 magnitude was recorded in the area.
It is the sixth eruption to hit the region since December, coming just two months after the end of a previous eruption that lasted more than three weeks.
Sudurnes regional police chief Ulfar Ludviksson told Icelandic media that the evacuation of the nearby fishing village of Grindavik had gone well.
He added that 22 or 23 houses in the village were currently occupied. Most of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents had evacuated in November, before an eruption in December, and although residents have since been allowed to return between eruptions, only a few have chosen to spend the night there.
According to the IMO, no lava flowed towards Grindavik during the last eruption.
Iceland’s popular Blue Lagoon thermal spa announced Thursday evening that it had taken “the precautionary measure of evacuating and temporarily closing all of our operational units.”
The Reykjanes Peninsula had not erupted for eight centuries until March 2021. Further eruptions occurred in August 2022, and again 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 volcanic systems, the most in Europe. It sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fissure in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
