A volcano in Iceland has erupted for the third time in only three months, sending jets of lava shooting hundreds of feet into the air.
Livestreams from webcams across the Reykjanes peninsula show bright orange plumes of molten rock leaking out of a fissure in the ground, and plumes of smoke billowing into the air.
The volcano is situated about 2.5 miles northeast of the fishing town of Grindavík, which was evacuated only last month after the volcano erupted right on its outskirts, sending rivers of lava towards the houses and burning several to the ground.
Now, the volcano is erupting from a two-mile-long fissure that has opened up in a new location, close to the site of the December eruption.
"At 5:30 this morning an intense seismic activity started northeast of Mt. Sýlingarfell. Around 30 minutes later, a volcanic eruption started at the site," the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a statement on Thursday morning.
"The eruptive fissure lengthened both towards north and south during the first minutes. The first images from the Icelandic Coast Guard's surveillance flight suggest that the eruption takes place at a similar location as the eruption on the 18th of December 2023," they said. "The lava fountains reach about 50-80 m [164-262 feet] height and the volcanic plume rises about 3 km [1.9 miles] above the eruptive fissure."
The fissure stretches between Mt. Sundhnúkur and the eastern part of Mt. Stóra-Skógfell. The lava is mostly flowing towards the west, not in the direction of Grindavík, which lies uninhabited since it was evacuated ahead of the January eruption.
According to the IMO, the lava flow appears to be less powerful than it was at the beginning of the December 18 eruption, at which point enough lava was pouring from the ground to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 20 seconds.
The lava is still causing damage to infrastructure, however, as it has flowed across a road near the exit of the famous Blue Lagoon bathing ponds, which have been evacuated, Icelandic national broadcaster RUV reported.
The volcano keeps erupting at different locations due to the Iceland's unique seismic properties, geologist David Kitchen explains.
"Iceland is uniquely situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are diverging. This tectonic activity creates fissures and rift zones, making the crust thinner and more fractured. As a result, magma can more easily find pathways to the surface along these zones of weakness. If tectonic forces alter these pathways, the location of magma ascent can change," Kitchen, an associate professor of geology at the University of Richmond, told Newsweek.
"Magma chambers are reservoirs of molten rock beneath the surface. The dynamics within these chambers, such as variations in pressure, temperature, and magma composition, can influence the movement of magma. For example, if a chamber becomes over-pressured, it may find a new pathway to the surface, leading to a shift in the eruption location."
Tectonic movements and the weight of overlying rocks can also cause the crust to fracture, creating new pathways for magma to erupt to the surface. Groundwater and glacier ice can also play a role in Iceland specifically, as if magma touches water it creates rapidly expanding steam, leading to new fractures and paths for eruptions.
According to the IMO, pieces of volcanic tephra rock have been found miles away from the eruption site, having been flung all the way into Grindavík.
"Tephra is frothy and vesicular material which forms when splashes of lava cool quickly in the air in the lava fountaining activity. This process took place when an eruptive fissure opened this morning (8th of February 2024). Due to the tephras' vesicularity and lightness it can be transported far within the volcanic plume with wind," the IMO said in a new statement.
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