Iceland’s volcano erupts once again

Television images capturing the eruption showed red lava flowing and a cloud of smoke rising from a crack in the middle of the black night. «At 05:30 am (local and GMT), a small earthquake began to intensify north-east of Sillingerfell. About 30 minutes later, an eruption began in the same area,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported.

«According to the first report from a coast guard surveillance flight, the explosion occurred in the same area as the one on December 18. The crack is approximately three kilometers long,” the service said. At the moment, only one geothermal spa that was close to the eruption has closed. It is unknown whether this new lava outbreak will affect the town of Grindavik, whose 4,000 residents had to be evacuated on January 14 after several rivers of lava passed through, setting some houses on fire.

To prevent this, Icelandic authorities began building dams in November that could help divert the raging lava flows away from homes and essential infrastructure.