Iceland has been rocked be a volcanic eruption hours after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook the country.
The volcanic eruption happened at Reykjanes peninsula near to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik and in 2021 and 2022 the same area erupted which grounded flights across Europe.
Geophysics professor Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson said that magma was seen flowing along a 200-metre-long crack, on Monday.
He told reporters, “The lava that comes up there flows to the south and then has quite a long way to go down to the road, quite a few kilometres.
“We can say that considering the possible effects, this is not an unfortunate place for an eruption. This can change.
“We are just looking at the beginning and we just have to wait and see what happens.”
Kristín Elísa Guðmundsdóttir, a natural disaster expert at Iceland’s Meteorological Office (IMO), added that the eruption at the volcano is happening “exactly where we expected.”
Icelandic police have restricted access to the volcano on Tuesday which is spewing out “life-threatening toxic gas pollution” since the eruption started on Monday.
Reuters reported that the department of civil protection and emergency management are encouraging residents of the peninsula which is 30 km from the capital to sleep with their windows shut and turn off the ventilation.
On 16, April 2010 Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted sending volcanic ash high up in to the atmosphere which would damage aircraft engines and therefore flights across European airspace were grounded.
As a result, million of passengers were stranded which resulted in the largest air traffic shut down since World War Two.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that the airline industry worldwide would lose €148 million every day during the disruption from the volcanic ash.
Leave a Comment