After eight centuries of silence, a volcano in Iceland has roared back to life in spectacular fashion. The volcano, located on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland, erupted for the seventh time this year. This is the volcano’s 10th eruption since 2021, when it came alive after 800 years of lying dormant.
The most recent eruption sent plumes of smoke into the sky and lava flowing towards the Blue Lagoon, a major tourist attraction near the Icelandic town of Grindavik.
Aerial view of a volcano
Passengers on a plane flying above the volcano managed to catch a once-in-a-lifetime aerial view of the eruption. Aerial footage, shared by an easyJet passenger, shows mesmerising lava floes turning the landscape orange.
The passenger, named Kayleigh, shared the footage on X, where it has gone viral with more than 5 million views. “My life has peaked. Nothing is ever topping this. Volcano erupted last night in Iceland,” she wrote while sharing the video.
Several people thanked the X user for capturing the video, calling it “mesmerizing” and “amazing,” among other adjectives.
Volcano eruption
{{/usCountry}}Several people thanked the X user for capturing the video, calling it “mesmerizing” and “amazing,” among other adjectives.
Volcano eruption
{{/usCountry}}The eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula started with little warning at 11:14 pm (2314 GMT) Wednesday and created a fissure around 3 kilometres long. The activity is estimated to be considerably smaller than the previous eruption in August, according to Iceland’s meteorological office that monitors seismic activity.
Most of the previous eruptions have subsided within days.
While the eruption poses no threat to air travel, authorities warned of gas emissions across parts of the peninsula, including the nearby town of Grindavík, which was largely evacuated a year ago when the volcano came to life after lying dormant for 800 years.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.
(With inputs from AP)