A volcano in Iceland that erupted on Saturday for the fourth time since December was nonetheless spewing smoke and vivid orange lava into the air early on Monday, though infrastructure and a close-by fishing city have been protected for now, authorities mentioned.
The eruption was the seventh on the Reykjanes peninsula close to Iceland’s capital Reykjavik since 2021 when geological methods that had lain dormant for round 800 years once more turned lively.
Man-made obstacles have been profitable in steering the lava away from infrastructure together with the Svartsengi geothermal energy plant and Grindavik, a fishing city of some 4,000 residents.
Footage from public broadcaster RUV confirmed lava flowing a number of hundred meters from the city which was evacuated throughout an eruption in November and once more throughout one other one in February.
“The defences at Grindavik proved their value … they have guided the lava flow in the intended direction,” native utility HS Orka mentioned, including that infrastructure operating to the Svartsengi energy plant was intact.
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Magma had been accumulating underground because the final eruption in February, prompting authorities to warn of an imminent eruption.
The warning time late on Saturday was solely quarter-hour earlier than fountains of molten rock started hovering from a 3km-long (1.9 mile) fissure, roughly the identical measurement and on the similar place because the eruption in February.
Lava flows continued at a gentle tempo on Monday, and it was too early to challenge when it could finish, Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics on the University of Iceland, advised RUV.
“It was surprisingly stable overnight and certainly majestic, but is still only between two-to-five per cent of what it was at the beginning,” he mentioned.
The February eruption lasted lower than two days whereas volcanic exercise continued for six months at a close-by system in 2021.
