A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday evening for the sixth time since December, spewing red lava through a new fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula. The eruption began shortly after 9pm following a series of strong earthquakes and within the hour a 2.4-mile fissure cut through the Sundhnukur crater.
Iceland authorities say the eruption’s effects remain localised with road closures but do not threaten the population. Halldor Bjornsson, head of weather and climate at the Norwegian Meteorological Agency, told the Icelandic news portal Visir that unlike previous eruptions the lava flow is not heading for the town of Grindavik, which was largely evacuated in December when the volcano came to life after being dormant for 800 years.
Geophysicist Magnus Tuma Gudmundsson, who flew over the eruption centres, told the website that “if this continues like this, Grindavik is not in danger because of this. Of course, we don’t know what will happen in the near future, but it is likely that this has reached its peak and then it will start to subside like the other eruptions.”
The eruption is not expected to impact air travel. An Icelandic volcano called Eyjafjallajokull disrupted air travel in April 2010. The volcano erupted on April 14, 2010, and released a massive ash cloud into the atmosphere.
The ash cloud spread across much of Europe, leading to the closure of large parts of European airspace from April 15 to April 23, 2010. This caused significant disruptions to air travel, with over 100,000 flights canceled and millions of passengers affected.
The eruption was particularly disruptive because volcanic ash can damage aircraft engines, making it dangerous to fly through the ash cloud.