A volcano located south of the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, began a “massive eruption” on Monday evening, according to what the Icelandic Meteorological Institute announced.
The institute said that “a massive eruption began a few kilometers northeast of Grindavik” shortly after 22:30 GMT, noting that the air navigation symbol in this region changed as a result of this eruption to red.
However, the company “Esavia”, which operates Icelandic airports, reassured on its website that “at the present time, there are no disruptions to arriving or departing flights at Keflavik Airport,” the main airport in the country, which is located close to the capital, Reykjavik.
For eight centuries, the Reykjanes Peninsula, located south of Reykjavik, remained free from any volcanic eruption, but this deep slumber ended in March 2021.
That first volcanic eruption marked the resumption of volcanic activity on the peninsula, as a second eruption soon occurred in August 2022 and a third in July 2023.
In Iceland, the land of fire and snow, there are 32 active volcanic systems, the highest number ever in Europe.
On November 11, the residents of Grindavik, a picturesque village with a population of 4,000, were evacuated as a precautionary measure after hundreds of earthquakes occurred caused by the movement of magma beneath the Earth’s crust, which is an indication of an imminent volcanic eruption.
Since then, these residents have been allowed to visit their homes only at specific times during the day.
Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, and extends over a mountain range at the Mid-Atlantic Rift, which is a fissure in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
In April 2010, a massive eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, located in southern Iceland, led to the cancellation of about 100,000 flights, disrupting the movement of more than 10 million passengers.
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