(14 Jan 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: MUST CREDIT MARCO DI MARCO
ASSOCIATED PRESS – MUST CREDIT MARCO DI MARCO
Reykjavik – 14 January 2024
1. Various of gas plume produced by eruption seen from road that connects Reykjavik to Keflavík International Airport
2. Various of visitors watching eruption
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove, nature photographer:
“I can’t really imagine what people are going through, the fact that you can see this on television, the fact that you can see this on webcams, it’s a bit of a weird feeling to see a town being destroyed almost in slow motion at this point. It’s difficult to put it in words what I’m feeling right now. I’m very sad about what’s going on."
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Kermarec, ranger at The Environment Agency of Iceland:
“To be honest I don’t think it would be very smart to go and have a look at the area now at this eruption. It’s probably a better chance to have a look from the plane than trying to reach this area by foot. As a ranger, my feeling is, like, this is an eruption that is causing a lot of damage in the town, probably it will reach the houses in a few hours, we don’t know, because we don’t know how long it will last. I’m very sad at the moment. It’s very difficult to see all these people who had lost the house probably very soon."
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristín Jónsdóttir, Head of Department of Volcanoes, Earthquakes & Deformation at the Icelandic Met Office:
“What we’ve seen this morning was a very rapid flow of magma from Svartsengi into this (magmatic) dike which goes through Grindavik and in comparison to what happened on the 18th of December, this magma migrated southwards towards Grindavik. Luckily we got some warnings, so we got increased earthquake activity, and this was all communicated towards the Civil Protection, so the town of Grindavik was evacuated early this morning. An eruption started five hours later, after the initiation of seismic unrest, so at 8:00 this morning. What we’ve been seeing happening now, is that a new fissure has opened even closer to Grindavik. So now we have over a kilometre long fissure that’s spewing lava, and lava is flowing towards Grindavik. There is a barrier, a lava barrier that was built (to protect the town), but unfortunately this fissure propagated through the barrier, so part of the lava is on the wrong side of the barrier."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted for the second time in less than a month on Sunday, sending lava snaking toward a nearby community and setting at least one home on fire.
The eruption, which began just before 8 a.m. local time, came after authorities evacuated the town of Grindavik following a swarm of small earthquakes, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.
Hours later, a second fissure opened near the edge of town and lava crept toward the homes.
Grindavik is a town of 3,800 people about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.
The community was previously evacuated in November following a series of earthquakes that opened large cracks in the earth between the town and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north.
The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa — one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions — also closed temporarily.
The volcano eventually erupted on Dec. 18, and residents were allowed to return to their homes on Dec. 22.
In the weeks since then, defensive walls had been built around the volcano in hopes of directing lava away from the community.
The latest eruption was more powerful than those in recent years.
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