Sundhnjukagigar volcano erupts in Iceland, town of Grindavik evacuated

A volcano erupted overnight from Wednesday to Thursday on the Reykjanes peninsula, in southwest Iceland, the seventh since December 2023, meteorological services announced.

“An eruption began at Sundhnukagigar, near Stora Skogfell at 2314 GMT”i.e. 12:14 a.m. in Paris on Wednesday November 20, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported. This announcement was preceded by a first message a quarter of an hour earlier which noted a “increased seismic activity” in the area.

Broadcast live, images show orange-red lava gushing from a long fissure surrounded by thick smoke. “The length of the fissure is estimated at 2.5 km and its southern end is at Sylingarfell. Considering the current situation, this eruption is smaller than the previous one”which took place at the end of August, continues the IMO.

Questioned by public radio, Benedikt Ofeigsson, specialist in deformation movements of the earth's crust at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, specified that “the flow [de lave] is approximately 1,200 meters to 1,300 cubic meters per second”. “The eruption also allows us to clearly see that it is smaller. The outpourings are lower and the lava does not flow as quickly [qu’en août]. » No infrastructure was currently threatened.

A city evacuated

The lava flows are not going towards the neighboring town of Grindavik, which was evacuated without difficulty, as were the hotels of the very touristy Blue Lagoon, whose pools were closed when the eruption began.

Most of Grindavik's 4,000 residents had been evacuated a year ago, shortly before the first volcanic eruption in the region. Since then, almost all the houses have been sold to the State and almost all the residents have left. “Around fifty houses were occupied in recent nights”declared civil protection. In January, during another eruption, three houses in this fishing village were engulfed in flames.

This is the seventh eruption in the region since December 2023, the last dating from the end of August, on the same Reykjanes peninsula, where Keflavik international airport, the largest in Iceland, is located. For the moment, air traffic is not affected, said its operator, Isavia. Civil protection nevertheless triggered a state of emergency for the region, as always during an eruption near an inhabited area.

The Reykjanes Peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries until March 2021. Others took place in August 2022 as well as in July 2023. Volcanologists then warned that volcanic activity in the region had entered a new era.

Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than any other European country. It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fault in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and causes earthquakes and eruptions.