As a 2.5-mile fissure opens up in the Earth’s crust spewing jets of lava, we look at the local and international implications
At 10.17pm local time (22.17 GMT) on Monday, a volcanic eruption began north of Grindavík on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. It came after weeks of intense earthquake activity and has been described as “amongst the most spectacular ever seen”.
So what has caused it, and what happens next?What has happened and why?
A 2.5-mile (4km) crack in the Earth’s surface has opened up, spewing glowing orange jets of lava surrounded by billowing clouds of red smoke.
In an overnight update, the Icelandic Met Office said the eruptive fissure was about 4km long and the distance from the southern end to the edge of Grindavík was almost 3km.
At one point, between 100 and 200 cubic metres (3,530 and 7,060 cubic ft) of lava was emerging per second.
The eruption had been expected for some time. The Reykjanes peninsula was hit by a so-called seismic swarm in late October and November, with hundreds of earthquakes happening every day for a period. Bulges in the land appeared as magma moved up into the Earth’s crust.
Situated in the North Atlantic, Iceland straddles the mid-Atlantic ridge that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. These huge slabs of rock are moving apart at a rate of a couple of centimetres a year, resulting in seismic and volcanic activity.Are people in danger?
For weeks, the inhabitants of Grindavík, a fishing town with a population of 4,000 people located about 25 miles (40km) south-west of Iceland’s capital, had feared their homes would be hit by any eruption when it came.
