Icelandic village, Blue Lagoon evacuated as lava flows from volcanic eruption

A fishing village in southwest Iceland was evacuated Tuesday after lava began spewing from a volcanic eruption, the eighth to hit the region since the end of 2023.

An aerial view of the volcanic eruption near the town of Grindavik, on the Reykjanes Peninsula on Tuesday. AP Photo/Marco di Marco

Iceland’s famed Blue Lagoon spa was evacuated on Tuesday after lava began spewing from a volcanic eruption, the eighth to hit the region since the end of 2023.

The spa, one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, closed for the day as a fishing village in southwest Iceland was also evacuated.

Molten lava is seen coming out of a fissure on the outskirts of the fishing village Grindavik in southwest Iceland. Picture: Ael Kermarec / AFP)

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said “an eruption has started on the Sundhnuksgigar Crater Row” north of the fishing village Grindavik.

Live video feeds showed lava spewing out of a fissure in the ground. The IMO said initially reports indicated that the “eruptive fissure” extended about 700m, reporting hours later that it extended about 1,200 metres.

Around 11:00am (10pm AEDT), the agency said that a “new eruptive fissure has opened a few hundred meters inside the protective barriers north of Grindavik -- between the barriers and the town itself”.

The IMO warned earlier that an eruption could be imminent as “an earthquake swarm” began in the early morning in a similar fashion to previous eruptions.

Broadcaster RUV reported that authorities had evacuated Grindavik, though eight residents had decided to remain.

“We reiterate our instructions -- it was a request for people to leave the danger zone, but as has been stated, people have been staying in seven or eight houses there, and those individuals have decided to remain in the town,” the region’s police commissioner, Ulfar Ludviksson, told the broadcaster.

He added that they did not intend to force people to leave and that those who had opted to remain were well-acquainted with the escape routes.

An eruption hit the area as recently as November, which in turn was the seventh eruption in a year.

Most of Grindavik’s 4,000 residents were evacuated in late 2023, shortly before the first volcanic eruption in the area.

Since then, almost all the houses have been sold to the state, and most of the residents departed.

Ludviksson had reported that recently, around 40 houses in Grindavik were occupied by residents, according to RUV.

Volcanoes on the peninsula had not erupted for eight centuries until March 2021, when a period of heightened seismic activity began.

Volcanologists warned that volcanic activity in the region had entered a new era.

Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than any other European country.

It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fault in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and causes earthquakes and eruptions.