A major volcanic eruption has begun on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula. There is a risk that lava flows could reach the evacuated town of Grindavik.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dWe hope for the best,\u201d says Prime Minister Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A strong earthquake was measured north of the city of Grindavik at 9 p.m. on Monday, and just over an hour later, magma erupted from the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lava is spewing high and the lava flow from the fissure is around 100 to 200 cubic meters per second, which is many times more powerful than previous eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent years, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The length of the crack was estimated at approximately 3.5 kilometers before midnight local time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dThere is a risk that lava flows could reach the city of Grindavik,\u201d Krist\u00edn J\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir, head of natural hazards at the weather authority, told public service broadcaster R\u00fav.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police believe that no one is in immediate danger, and emergency services have been called to the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city's mayor, Fannar J\u00f3nasson, tells R\u00fav that he believes the city was deserted when the outbreak began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir notes that this appears to be a major outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201d"Our thoughts go out to the local people as before, we hope for the best," she writes in a statement on social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Small Grindavik with about 4,000 inhabitants, forty kilometers southwest of Reykjavik, was evacuated in mid-November after hundreds of earthquakes and the discovery of a 15-kilometer-long magma flow underground just outside the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the fourth eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iceland, and Reykjanes in particular, lies directly over the \u201dMid-Atlantic Ridge\u201d where the Eurasian and North American continental plates meet, making volcanic eruptions very common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: TT-DI.SE<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ett omfattande vulkanutbrott har startat p\u00e5 isl\u00e4ndska Reykjaneshalv\u00f6n. Det finns en risk att lavastr\u00f6mmarna kan n\u00e5 den evakuerade staden Grindavik. \u201dVi hoppas p\u00e5 det b\u00e4sta\u201d, s\u00e4ger statsminister Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir. En kraftig jordb\u00e4vning\u00a0uppm\u00e4ttes norr om staden Grindavik vid 21-tiden p\u00e5 m\u00e5ndagen och drygt en timme senare tr\u00e4ngde magma upp ur jorden. Lava sprutar h\u00f6gt och lavafl\u00f6det […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[342,1415,967],"class_list":["post-242071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-turism","tag-island","tag-reykjaneshalvon","tag-vulkan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n