A volcano in Iceland erupted Saturday evening for the fourth time in three months, sending orange jets of lava into the night sky.
A volcano in Iceland erupted Saturday evening for the fourth time in three months, sending orange jets of lava into the night sky.
Iceland’s Meteorological Office said the eruption opened a fissure in the earth about 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) long between Stóra-Skógfell and Hagafell mountains on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
The Met Office had warned for weeks that magma—semi-molten rock—was accumulating under the ground, making an eruption likely.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Blue Lagoon thermal spa, one of Iceland’s top tourist attractions, when the eruption began, national broadcaster RUV said.
No flight disruptions were reported at nearby Keflavik, Iceland’s main airport.
The eruption site is a few kilometers (miles) northeast of Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, that was evacuated before the initial eruption in December. A few residents who had returned to their homes were evacuated again Saturday.
Grindavik was evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years with a series of earthquakes that opened large cracks in the ground north of the town.
