Iceland Town and Blue Lagoon Spa evacuated after volcanic eruptions

A volcano has broken out near the capital of Iceland, spits lava and smoke and causes the evacuation of tourists and residents.

Registered as a land of ice and fire for its many glaciers and volcanoes, the North Atlantic island nation has now seen 11 eruptions south of Reykjavik since 2021.

“Warning: an outburst has begun,” said the Icelandic meteorological office in a statement.

The outbreak flowed close to a fishing city, gravel, and led to an evacuation of residents who had returned after previous eruptions, although most houses have been vacant for more than a year.

“There is currently lava within the barrier, but it is so far a very limited eruption,” said head of the Nordic volcanological center, Rikke Pedersen said.

Emergency services also evacuated the nearby blue lagoon luxury Spa in the hours prior to the eruption, because geologists had warned that it was threatening.

Mrs. Pedersen said that the outbreak was comparable to an eruption of January 2024, who spewed Lava in Grindavik.

The outbursts on the Reykjanes peninsula so far have not directly influenced the capital Reykjavik and have not caused a disruption of air traffic.

Icelandic experts predict that the eruptions, characterized by lava that flow from long cracks in the crust of the earth instead of a single volcanic opening, can repeat themselves for decades or even centuries.

Iceland, the home of nearly 400,000 people, attracts thousands of tourists every year who come to explore its rough nature, including geysers, hot springs and volcanoes.

Iceland lies where the Eurasian and North -American tectonic plates pull apart and are largely covered with black lava fields, in contrast with glaciers and blankets of lively green moss.