A volcanic eruption has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula in south-western Iceland, according to the country’s meteorological office, shortly after authorities evacuated the nearby town of Grindavík.
“An eruption has started near Sundhnúkagígar, north of Grindavík,” the Icelandic meteorological office said in a statement on Wednesday, almost three weeks after the end of a previous eruption that started on 16 March.
“The eruption plumes reach a height of at least 50 metres,” it added.
The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, Iceland’s biggest tourist attraction, said it had evacuated its facilities.
The eruption was the fifth to occur on the peninsula since December.
The meteorological office noted “intense earthquake activity” before Wednesday’s eruption.
It also reported the accumulation of 20m cubic metres of molten rock in the magma chamber below Svartsengi, where a power plant is located that supplies electricity and water to about 30,000 people on the peninsula.
The Svartsengi plant was evacuated and has largely been run remotely since the first eruption in the region in December. Barriers have been built to protect it.
Most of the 4,000 residents of Grindavík were permanently evacuated in November, before the eruptions that occurred from December until March.
Lava flowed into the streets of Grindavík during the January eruption, engulfing three homes. But a few residents had returned to live in neighbourhoods less at risk from lava flow.
On Monday evening, the meteorological office had said that “about 400 earthquakes” had been measured in the past seven days near the Sundhnúkagígar crater row.
Until March 2021, the Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for 800 years. Volcanologists believe a new era of seismic activity has begun in the region.