A volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula of southwest Iceland erupted on Monday night, spewing lava fountains and sending plumes of red smoke billowing hundreds of feet into the air.
Captured on webcam, the eruption comes after weeks of earthquakes spurred Icelandic authorities to declare a state of emergency and evacuate the nearby town of Grindavík.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office said in a statement that the eruption began around 10 p.m. local time after a “swarm” of small quakes rattled the area an hour before. The eruption “seems to be close to Hagafell,” a peak less than three kilometers north of Grindavík, the office added.
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The government of Iceland said in a news release that authorities had recorded an initial fissure opening of four kilometers.
The eruption did not present an immediate threat to human life, it said, but the area was closed to all traffic as responders and scientists continued to monitor the situation. The risk to nearby energy infrastructure was being assessed on Monday night.
Flights in and out of Iceland were not expected to be impacted.
The Lava Centre, an Icelandic educational museum, noted on X that the volcano’s lava appeared to be flowing north, “which is good news for the people of Grindavík.”
The fishing town of nearly 4,000 people was ordered to clear out on Nov. 10, with officials shuttering the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist attraction. The spa partially reopened on Sunday, with a reevaluation scheduled later this week, according to The Reykjavík Grapevine.
“The eruption is not expected to impact additional populated areas,” the Icelandic government said on Monday.
Iceland’s minister of foreign affairs, Bjarni Benediktsson, earlier declared the evacuation a complete success. But local broadcaster RÚV on Monday that some residents had eschewed warnings and returned to their homes to spend the night.
“The residents of Grindavík have become very tired of this situation that has persisted for a very long time,” explained Úlfar Lúðvíksson, south Iceland’s chief of police.
More than 20,000 earthquakes have shuddered through the region since late October, according to authorities, wrecking buildings and cracking roads. Iceland, which has more than 30 active volcanic systems and 130 volcanoes, experiences a volcano event roughly every four years.
Though far from the most active system in the country, following eight centuries of dormancy, volcanoes along the Reykjanes peninsula have erupted three other times since 2021.
