Iceland Volcano Update as Lava Hits Town of Grindavík

A fresh eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula, which began on Sunday, has seen lava vents open up in the coastal fishing town of Grindavík, consuming houses as molten rock spreads through the streets.

The town's population of nearly 4,000 was evacuated early on in the development of seismic activity in the region, after cracks appeared in the ground. Authorities built earth walls and channels around Grindavík and the power plant at Svartsengi in the hope of diverting lava flows.

With the path of a vertical magma intrusion in the Earth's crust running along the northwestern edge of the town, Grindavík's destruction was always a possibility.

In an update on Sunday afternoon, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said the latest eruption—which followed the opening up of an initial lava fissure 1.7 miles to the north of Grindavík on December 18—had propagated to the surface just to the north of the town.

Seismic readings suggested that in the early hours of that morning, magma in the vertical intrusion had shifted southwest, away from the Stóra-Skógfell mountain and towards Grindavík.

The approximately 9.3-mile-long vertical dike of magma—which runs northeast to southwest—formed in a weak point in the Earth's crust in November, and is thought to be fed by a horizontal intrusion causing crustal uplift around the nearby geothermal power plant at Svartsengi.

When an eruption initially occurred, lava spread across an uninhabited region of the peninsula, raising hopes of a brief reprieve from volcanic activity that would allow Grindavík residents to return to their homes.

However, the horizontal intrusion soon began inflating again, before slowing—suggesting that pressure was rising under the surface. On Tuesday, officials warned that another eruption could occur in a matter of days.

The Icelandic Met Office said on Sunday that after a new fissure had opened up to the north of Grindavík, lava from the fissure had entered the town.

"Due to the dike propagation, existing faults and fractures were reactivated and likely new fractures formed within Grindavík," it added.

Images taken by local photographers confirmed that lava from a nearby vent had flowed into the outer reaches of the town, and was later seen incinerating houses one by one.

"I don't think it's possible to imagine anything worse than it erupting in a settlement and lava flowing onto houses," Benedikt Halldórsson, a seismic hazards coordinator with the Icelandic Met Office, told Iceland's national broadcaster RUV.

While officials hoped to protect the town from lava flows, experts have previously warned that Grindavík's proximity to the path of the vertical dike meant there was nothing to stop magma propagating under it.

Andrew Hooper, a geophysicist at the University of Leeds, in the U.K., told Newsweek prior to the first eruption that one "could happen within the town itself, in which case ash and lava would pose a direct threat."

On Wednesday morning, a man who had been working to fill cracks in Grindavík with soil fell into one, sparking a search and rescue operation. The latest eruption forced all personnel to withdraw from the area, the head of Iceland's civil defense authority told RUV, and they won't return until it's safe to do so.

In a national address, Icelandic President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson said his thoughts were with the loved ones of Lúðvík Pétursson, the man who had fallen into the crack.

"What we all hoped would not happen has come to pass," he said. "We shall continue to hold those in our thoughts who have not been able to live in their own homes, those who have had to watch the lava flow through and around their community."

Jóhannesson added: "When we find ourselves in dire straits, we Icelanders stand together. Without a doubt, the people of Grindavík and all of us hope that this disaster will soon subside, that soon people will be able to return home."