The Sunddhnúksgígar volcano began erupting on Tuesday morning as residents of nearby town Grindavík and tourists of luxury resort Blue Lagoon were cleared out of the danger zone
Iceland: Volcano begins to erupt near Grindavik
A volcano eruption in Iceland that forced a mass evacuation of residents and tourists nearby could be much bigger than previous events, an expert has warned.
The Sunddhnúksgígar volcano began spewing hot molten lava on Tuesday morning following increased seismic activity in recent weeks. Only hours earlier the Blue Lagoon spa, famous for its geothermic waters, was cleared out along with residents of the fishing town, Grindavík. A few local media reports suggested that some people refused to leave, however. Runólfur Þórhallsson, director of the Civil Protection Department, said the fissure had opened by the town in a “dark scenario”.
He told Visir: “This is one of the darker scenarios we’ve been looking at lately. This is similar in many ways to the eruption in January 2024 and the sequence of events that was going on then. That’s the situation. It seems to be expanding little by little in both directions, and that’s just the current situation.”
Dr Agust Gudmundsson, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, noted that the eruption is expected to be “bigger than before” because the magma has been collecting underground for many months. “There was a large volume moving up in the subsurface, indicating there is a lot of magma available… so we expect this to be a bigger one than before,’ he told the MailOnline.
He added that it was “difficult to say” exactly how long the eruption would continue, with previous ones lasting only a few days and others “longer than that”. He said: “The thing we know is that there is a lot of magma there… It’s a question of how much of it is going to go to the surface.”
An Icelandic Met Office update from earlier today read: “An eruption has started just north of the protective barrier near Grindavík. The fissure is now about 500 meters long and has reached through the protective barrier north of Grindavík. The fissure continues to grow, and it cannot be ruled out that it may continue to open further south.”
“A Coast Guard helicopter will take off shortly to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption. The length of the magma intrusion under the Sundhnúkur crater row that has already formed is about 11 km, which is the longest measured since November 11, 2023.
“Given the current wind direction, gas pollution from the eruption will be carried northeast toward the capital area. It is not possible to predict the intensity of the pollution.”
The area is susceptible to volcanic eruptions. One occurred last November, which was astonishingly the seventh eruption of the year.
The majority of Grindavík’s 4,000 residents were evacuated towards the end of 2023 following an eruption in the area and since then most of its properties have been sold to the state and its homeowners left. The region’s police commissioner, Ulfar Ludviksson, told Iceland’s RUV broadcaster that around 40 houses in Grindavík were occupied by residents.
However, he said that people staying in “seven or eight houses there… have decided to remain in the town”. The 200 or so guests staying at Blue Lagoon were today evacuated in approximately 40 minutes over fears for their safety. Helga Árnadóttir, the resort’s sales, marketing and development manager said: “Guests are actually arriving or on their way to another hotel and employees are going home. This went well, just like before.”