COPENHAGEN, Denmark—A volcano in Iceland that erupted on March 16 for the fourth time since December 2023 was still spewing smoke and bright orange lava into the air early on March 18, although infrastructure and a nearby fishing town are safe for now, according to authorities.
The eruption was the seventh on the Reykjanes peninsula near Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, since 2021, when geological systems that had lain dormant for about 800 years again became active.
Man-made barriers have been successful in steering the lava away from infrastructure, including the Svartsengi geothermal power plant and Grindavik, a fishing town of some 4,000 residents.
Footage from public broadcaster RUV shows lava flowing a few hundred meters from the town that was evacuated during an eruption in November 2023 and again during another one in February.
“The defenses at Grindavik proved their value. ... They have guided the lava flow in the intended direction,” local utility HS Orka stated, noting that the infrastructure running to the Svartsengi power plant was intact.
Magma had been accumulating underground since the last eruption in February, prompting authorities to warn of an imminent eruption.
The warning time late on March 16 was only 15 minutes before fountains of molten rock began soaring from a roughly three-kilometer-long (1.9-mile) fissure, roughly the same size and at the same place as the eruption in February.
Lava flows continued at a steady pace on March 18, and it was too early to project when it would end, Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, told RUV.
“It was surprisingly stable overnight and certainly majestic, but is still only between 2 [percent and] 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.
