Iceland Volcano Update: Lava Nears Power Plant, Thousands Without Hot Water

Lava from an eruption that began in the early hours of Thursday morning on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula has flowed towards a geothermal power plant, rupturing a hot water pipe that supplied thousands of homes.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office produced maps on Thursday afternoon that showed that the ongoing eruption had spread lava across a region already coated in fresh rock from previous volcanic blasts, but it had also flowed west between the Stóra-Skógfell and Sýlingarfell mountains towards the power plant at Svartsengi.

In an update on Friday, the agency said that between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time (1 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET) on Thursday, an estimated 15 million cubic meters of lava—equivalent to nearly four billion gallons—had been discharged from the new volcanic fissure, which first opened up in mid-December.

Authorities have built earth walls and channels around the power plant at Svartsengi to protect it from lava flows, however, the molten rock has cut across a pipe that transported hot water from the plant to settlements across the peninsula.

This was despite attempts being made to build emergency defenses to protect the pipe before the lava arrived.

Residents were asked to conserve heat and hot water by Iceland's Civil Defense administration, as distribution tanks containing reserves of hot water were expected to be depleted by 9 p.m. on Thursday night. A new bypass pipeline was not anticipated to be up and running until midnight, while it could take as long as two days to reach full pressure.

The rupture comes as Iceland is facing a bitterly cold end to the week: on Friday and Saturday, temperatures in the capital, Reykjavík, are not expected to exceed minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit), while a "severe frost" was forecast for Thursday night.

The Civil Defense agency said that many residents had acquired electric or gas heaters, and that "work is being done to bring more electric heaters to the country"—but warned that the strain usage would have on the power grid meant that entire neighborhoods could experience outages.

State broadcaster RUV reported that Keflavík Airport—the largest in Iceland, which is also located on the Reykjanes Peninsula—was without hot water, though air travel has not been affected by the eruption.

The northern area of Keflavík, as well as the towns of Sandgerði and Garður are also without hot water. Combined, the settlements have a population of around 19,000.

HS Veitur, a majority publicly-owned utilities company, said that it should be assumed that there would be no hot water for properties across the peninsula for at least two days.

Volcanologists have previously noted that much of Iceland's infrastructure was built on the Reykjanes Peninsula during a dormant period in terms of volcanic activity for the region, with one telling Newsweek that such activity served as a double-edged sword: providing the heat energy needed for geothermal power, but also having the capacity to destroy those amenities.

The Icelandic Met Office said that though the eruption had "significantly decreased" since it began, it was "still too early to declare if it has come to an end."

The latest eruption is the third in as many months: the first occurred in mid-December, after more than a month of seismic activity in the region, while the second took place on January 14.

Volcanic fissures have been opening up above an 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. This is being 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 residents of the nearby coastal fishing town of Grindavík to return to their homes following their evacuation.

However, the second eruption saw lava breach the earth walls built around the town, destroying properties in its path.

Each of the eruptions has released pressure from the vertical dike, and led to a reduction in crustal uplift around Svartsengi. But each time, the pressure from magma pushing into the Earth's crust has then risen again, propagating magma into the dike, and building until another eruption occurs.

Ben Edwards, an American volcanologist who has visited the Reykjanes Peninsula multiple times, previously told Newsweek that the December 18 eruption could mark the start of over a century of volcanic activity in the region.