REYKJAVIK, Aug 23, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A new volcano erupted on the Reykjanes
peninsula in southwestern Iceland late Thursday, spewing hot lava into the
air in the sixth eruption to hit the region since December, authorities said.

Live video images showed orange lava bursting out of a long fissure,
illuminating the billowing smoke rising up into the night sky.

"An eruption has started on the Sundhnuksgigarod," the Icelandic
Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a statement, adding that the eruption had
started at 9:26 pm (2126 GMT) following a series of earthquakes.

The IMO initially estimated the length of the fissure at 1.4 kilometres (0.86
miles), adding in a later statement that it had extended to 3.9 kilometres in
40 minutes.

It said that there was still "considerable seismic activity" at the northern
end of the fissure more than an hour after the start of the eruption.

Dozens of people could be seen parked on the side of the main road from the
capital Reykjavik to Iceland's Keflavik airport to watch the eruption,
according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Iceland's national airport and air navigation service provider Isavia said in
a statement that "flights to and from Iceland are operating normally despite
the ongoing eruption."

This is the sixth eruption to hit the area since December, coming just two
months after the end of a previous eruption that lasted more than three
weeks.

The chief of police of the Sudurnes region, Ulfar Ludviksson, told news
outlet mbl.is that the evacuation of the nearby fishing village of Grindavik
was going well.

He added that 22 or 23 houses in the village were currently occupied.

Most of Grindavik's 4,000 residents had evacuated in November, prior to a
December eruption, and while residents have since been allowed to return in
between eruptions, only a few have opted to stay overnight.

The IMO has warned for weeks that another eruption was likely and said on
Monday that "seismic activity" indicated a build-up of pressure to magma
accumulation under Svartsengi, where a power plant that supplies electricity
and water to around 30,000 people on the peninsula is located.

The Svartsengi plant was evacuated and has largely been run remotely since
the first eruption in the region in December, and barriers have been built to
protect it.

The Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries
until March 2021.

Further eruptions occurred in August 2022 and in July and December 2023,
leading volcanologists to warn that a new era of seismic activity had begun
in the region.

Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.

It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating
the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.