By Isabelle Yr Carlsson and Tom Little
Copenhagen: A volcano has spewed lava and smoke in spectacular fashion over south-western Iceland for a second day raising fears of spreading pollution hours after its eruption forced the evacuation of a spa resort.
Fountains of glowing molten rock shot into the night sky when the volcano first erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula on Thursday.
The flow from the volcano has since slowed, Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Centre, said. “We have a quite intense fountaining and high output in the beginning and it rapidly declines, but that doesn’t tell us anything about how long it will last.”
View of the lava fountains pouring out from the new eruptive fissure opened at Svartsengi volcanic system, Iceland, this week. The fissure is 3km north of Grindavik.Credit: AP
The meteorological office warned that wind could carry gas pollution from the eruption towards the south and south-east.
The nearby Blue Lagoon spa, which has large outdoor pools heated by geothermal energy, was evacuated and remained closed.
“We just went there as tourists looking for a good day,” said real estate broker Dennis Murphy, from Cape Cod, Massachussetts, who was there with his daughter.
“The next thing you know, the ground is exploding right next to us,” the 53-year-old said. They watched the sky turn red as they were being evacuated.
Tourists and visitors try to get a view of the eruption from a distance.Credit: AP
“There was definitely a sense of urgency as we were trying to get out of there. The staff was throwing all of our belongings into our bag and just saying, you got to get out of here,” he added.
Around 1300 guests and staff were at the spa, Icelandic daily Morgunbladid reported.
Lava initially flowed out of the volcano at a rate of up to 2000 cubic metres per second, making it comparable to the last eruption in May, Pedersen of the Nordic Volcanological Centre said.
The length of the fissure in the volcano, which has erupted six times since December, expanded to 5 km during the day from 3.9 km earlier in the week, Pedersen said.
The nearby fishing town of Grindavik, which was threatened by burning lava and hit by earthquakes during some earlier eruptions, was not directly impacted, the meteorological office said.
Lava flows stopped short of a nearby road, Pedersen said.
Air traffic in and out of the capital’s Keflavik Airport was not affected, it said on its website
Reuters