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A vent on Iceland ’s Reykjanes Peninsula has recrudesce just three weeks after the last bang ended , spewing vast wall of lava toward the town of Grindavík .
Iceland ’s Civil Protection warned residents and emergency responders to be ready to empty the town at scant notice in a translatedstatement .
Iceland’s Civil Defense organization shot aerial picture of an eruption that started just before 1 p.m. local time May 29.
The eruption take off just before 1 p.m. local time ( 9 a.m. E.T. ) at Sundhnúkur crater , about 2 miles ( 3 kilometers ) northeast of Grindavík . originate magma opened a 1.5 - mile - farseeing ( 2.5 km ) fissure that is currently throw lava up to 165 feet ( 50 meters ) into the air , accord to theIcelandic Met Office(IMO ) .
The fissure appear to be maturate , IMO congressman said .
This is the 8th bang on the peninsula since March 2021 and the 5th since December 2023 . The last eruption continue for 54 days , from March 16 to May 8 , 2024 . That clap produced lava flows thatnarrowly missed Grindavíkand agiant plume of toxic gas that traveled one C of milesacross northern Europe .
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The late flurry of volcanic activity in Icelandbegan on Dec. 18 , 2023 , comply workweek of localise earthquakes , which incite authority to void 4,000 people from Grindavík and shut the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal health club . Breathtaking exposure showed a wall of lavaup to 100 feet ( 30 m ) tall erupting from a immense cranny .
JUST IN : A fresh volcanic eruption has just started on Iceland ’s Reykjanes Peninsula , make it the eighth bang in this area since March 2021 . This one comes only 20 days after the last irruption was officially declare over . pic.twitter.com/xU50fgI1tkMay 29 , 2024
A 2d eruptionrocked the Reykjanes Peninsula four weeks later , with a lava - mouth off crevice quicklyreaching Grindavík and destruct three household . The volcano thenerupted for a third time Feb. 8and again March 16 .
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The eruptions are part of a1,000 - year cycle of volcanic activitythat set about in 2021 and could break up the Icelandic peninsula for centuries to come . The tempestuousness is triggered by two tectonic plate that are being pulled aside . The result strain is release in bursts of seismic and volcanic body process , David Pyle , a volcanologist and professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford , U.K. , previously tell Live Science .
" Each eruption releases just a moment more of the stored - up strain , and eventually , when all of that strain has been unblock , then the eruptions will stop , " Pyle said .
