Iceland volcano erupts prompting evacuation of Blue Lagoon
Iceland’s world-famous Blue Lagoon and the nearby town of Grindavik were evacuated on Saturday following a volcanic eruption in the country’s Reykjanes Peninsula, CNN reports.
Lava appeared to be flowing rapidly towards north of the town Grindavík, just as it did during the eruption on February 8, RÚV said citing the Icelandic Met Office. RUV later reported that lava was also flowing toward the Grindavíkurvegur road – the main road leading to Grindavik.
“The fissure is about three kilometers long [about 1.9 miles], and runs from Stóra-Skógfell towards Hagafell,” it said.
However, anti-lava barriers outside Grindavik are holding and there has been no damage to critical infrastructure since the eruption, Iceland’s civil protection agency spokeswoman Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir told CNN Sunday.
With the barriers diverting the lava, there was no immediate danger to the town, and other parts of Iceland remained unaffected, she added.
Iceland’s main international airport, Keflavik Airport, and other regional airports remain fully operational, RUV said. However, volcanic gas is expected to be detectable in the town near the airport on Sunday, RUV reported.
The current eruption is the most powerful in the recent sequence of seismic activity, geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson told RUV after returning from a helicopter flight over the site.
Guðmundsson said the fissure, which is very active now, extends from the northern side of Hagafell and north to Stóra-Skógfell. He estimated it was about 3.5 kilometers wide.
