Iceland volcano ERUPTS just 12 miles from country’s main airport spewing lava and ‘life-threatening toxic gas’
A VOLCANO in southwestern Iceland has erupted, sparking warnings it is spewing lava and a “life-threatening toxic gas.”
The Fagradalsfjall volcano, located near Reykjavik just 12 miles from the country’s main airport, erupted following heightened seismic activity in the area.
Dramatic footage shows the volcano spewing boiling lava just southeast of the international Keflavik airport.
Icelandic police have restricted access to the volcano since it began erupting on Monday, the Department of civil protection and emergency management said.
Residents of the Reykjanes peninsula, near the capital, have been encouraged to sleep with windows closed and to switch off ventilation.
“The police, after counsel from scientists, have decided to restrict access to the eruption site due to enormous and life-threatening toxic gas pollution,” the department said.
“For the next hours, it is highly likely that gas will build up around the eruption site due to low wind. Those who have already undertaken the hike to the eruption site, or are already there, are strongly advised to leave the area,” it said.
“It is not a little hike,” Kristin Gudmundsdottir, a natural hazard specialist at the Met Office, said.
The airport remained open Monday and no flights were affected.
The eruption follows intense seismic activity over the past few days and is classified as a fissure eruption, which does not usually result in large explosions or a significant amount of ash in the stratosphere, the Icelandic government said in a statement late on Monday.
“At the moment, it’s a very small eruption,” said Matthew Roberts of the country’s Meteorological Office (IMO) last night adding there was no direct imminent hazard to people in the region.
The area, known broadly as Fagradalsfjall volcano, has erupted twice in the last two years after 800 years of being dormant.
Amazing drone footage showed the erupting volcano in 2021 after it erupted following over 50,000 small earthquakes.
Volcanic activity in the area continued for six months that year, prompting thousands of Icelanders and tourists to visit the scene.
In August 2022, a three-week eruption happened in the same area.
The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
More than 100,000 flights were grounded, stranding millions of international travelers and halting air travel for days because of concerns the ash could damage jet engines.