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Volcanic eruption in Iceland, the seventh in a year
A volcano erupted overnight from Wednesday to Thursday on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, the seventh since last December, meteorological services announced. “An eruption began in Sundhnúkagígar, near Stóra Skógfell at 11:14 p.m. GMT” (and local) on Wednesday, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a press release. This announcement was preceded by a first message a quarter of an hour earlier which noted “increased seismic activity” in this area. Broadcast live, images show orange-red lava gushing from a long crack surrounded by thick smoke.” The length of the crack is estimated 2.5 km away and its southern end is at Sýlingarfell. Given the current situation, this eruption is smaller than the previous one” which took place at the end of August, the IMO said in a statement. press release. Asked by the public broadcaster, Benedikt Ófeigsson, specialist in deformation movements of the earth’s crust at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, indicated that “the flow is approximately 1,200 to 1,300 cubic meters per second.”- Eruption smaller -“The rash also allows us to clearly see that it is smaller. The outpourings are lower and the lava does not flow as quickly.” He also clarified that no infrastructure was currently threatened. The lava flows are not going towards the neighboring town of Grindavík, which was evacuated without difficulty just like the hotels of the very touristy Blue Lagoon, whose pools are closed at this time. Most of the 4,000 inhabitants of Grindavík had already 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. “About fifty houses were occupied in recent nights,” civil protection said. January, during a second eruption, three houses in this fishing village were engulfed in flames. This is the seventh eruption in the region since December, the last dating from the end of August, on the same peninsula. Reykjanes, where Keflavik International Airport, the largest in Iceland, is located, where air traffic is not affected, its operator Isavia said. Civil protection has nevertheless triggered a state of emergency for the region , as always during an eruption near a populated 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 the region’s volcanic activity had entered a new era. Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than in 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.str-cbw/jnd
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