The Icelandic town of Grindavík and the nearby Blue Lagoon tourist attraction have been evacuated after the area was hit by another volcanic eruption.
The eruption is the 11th since 2021, when the Reykjanes peninsula, a region south-west of Reykjavík, started its latest eruption period.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said an “earthquake swarm” started at about 6.30am on the Sundhnúkur crater row in a similar place to previous eruptions, before erupting at 9.45am local time just north of the protective barrier near Grindavík.
The orange-red fissure, expelling lava and smoke, quickly spread southward and by 10am local time it had already reached through the defence walls north of Grindavík. Warning sirens went off around the town. By 12.35pm local time it was estimated to be 1,200 metres long.
A second fissure has also opened between Grindavík’s protective barriers and the town.
Dramatic video footage showed magma spewing up on the Grindavík side of the defence barrier. “The fissure continues to grow, and it cannot be ruled out that it may continue to open further south,” the IMO said.
The IMO later said it had received a report of a broken hot water pipeline in northern Grindavík, which it said “confirms that significant fault movements have occurred within the town”.
Later in the afternoon it said that while volcanic activity appeared to have significantly decreased, seismic activity was “ongoing”.
The fishing town, about an hour’s drive from the capital, has been largely uninhabited since 10 November 2023, when an eruption resulted in the town cracking open with fissures reaching a depth of 20 metres. Although some of the town’s 3,800 residents and some of its businesses returned, most dispersed to other parts of the country after the state bought up most of its buildings because they were uninhabitable.
Regional police said they had completed the evacuation of Grindavík, with the exception of a small number of residents who refused to leave. The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions, said it had successfully evacuated the thermal spa.
Runólfur Þórhallsson, Iceland’s director of civil protection, urged those who had chosen not to leave the town to evacuate, saying the eruption could be much larger than recent ones because the magma tunnel is longer and a lot of magma has accumulated.
The Blue Lagoon said it was temporarily closed due to the volcanic eruption and that it would provide more information as it became available.
Earlier in the day, the IMO said the signals it was picking up were stronger than those recently on Sundhnúkur crater row, indicating that “a considerable amount of magma is currently on the move”.
“Emergency responders in Grindavík have reported that earthquakes can be felt in the town, and signs of deformation are also visible there, suggesting that fault movements could occur within the town itself,” it added.
The Icelandic tourist board said there was “no threat to the population” and that flights were operating as usual at Keflavík airport.
Snorri Valsson, a spokesperson for the tourist board, said: “The area has been closed off and is completely closed until further notice. Gas pollution might form in isolated areas around the eruption depending on wind direction and is closely monitored.”
Valsson added: “The eruption is still developing and we will publish further information when gathered.”
Although there was an initial effect on tourist numbers after the November 2023 eruption – which the tourism board in part blamed on international reporting – numbers have since slightly increased.
The number of foreign nationals coming through Keflavík airport rose by 2% to 2,261,391 in 2023-24 compared with the same period the year before, according to Statistics Iceland. The 383,963 overnight hotel stays recorded in November 2024 were also up compared with the number in November 2023.
