COPENHAGEN—A volcano in Iceland erupted for the fourth time since December on Saturday, continuing pouring smoke and brilliant orange lava into the air early Monday, but infrastructure and a neighboring fishing village were safe for the time being, according to officials.
The eruption was the seventh on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, since 2021, when geological processes that had been dormant for almost 800 years reactivated.
Man-made barriers have successfully kept the lava away from infrastructure like as the Svartsengi geothermal power plant and Grindavik, a fishing hamlet of about 4,000 people.
RUV footage showed lava pouring within a few hundred meters from the settlement, which was evacuated after an eruption in November and again in February.
“The defenses at Grindavik proved their value … they have guided the lava flow in the intended direction,” local utility HS Orka said, adding that infrastructure running to the Svartsengi power plant was intact.
Magma has been building underground since the last explosion in February, prompting officials to warn of an impending outburst.
The warning period late on Saturday was barely 15 minutes before jets of molten rock erupted from a 3km-long (1.9 mile) crack, nearly the same size and location as the eruption in February.
Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, told RUV that lava flows were continuing at a constant speed on Monday, and it was too early to predict when they will stop.
“It was surprisingly stable overnight and certainly majestic, but is still only between 2–5 percent of what it was at the beginning,” he said.
The February eruption lasted less than two days while volcanic activity continued for six months at a nearby system in 2021.
