VOLCANO ERUPTION : Weather officials said the eruption seemed small at this stage. No cities are considered threatened by the Prime Minister : Natural calamity happenings
The eruption of a long-sleeping volcano that sent lava streams across a small valley in south-western Iceland is relaxed and should not interfere with aviation, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday.
The fissure eruption started at approximately 8:45 p.m. on Friday in the Valley of Geldinga, around 32 kilometres southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. The rash is “minor” and no signs of ash or dust have been found that might disturb air transport, the agency said.
“As we see, as the eruption becomes smaller,” geophysicist Pall Einarsson said to The Associated Press Saturday after overnight monitoring of the volcano.
Iceland’s southwest corner is the country’s most populous part. The Emergency Management Department said that it does not anticipate evacuations unless there is a significant increase in the volcanic gas levels.
Iceland’s international air transport hub, Keflavik Airport, said flights have remained on schedule from the beginning of the eruption.
‘The production of ash and tephra is not indicated and there is no imminent aviation risk,’ said the Met Office on its website.
An volcano eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in 2010 brought ash and dust to the atmosphere, which caused material disruption to jet engines. In 2010, it disrupted air travel between Europe and North America. Over 100,000 flights were grounded and millions of passengers were stranded.
The eruption of the Geldinga Valley is the first in nearly 800 years on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
Fifteen months ago, the area started to rumble with increased seismic activity, with tremors dramatically increased last month.
The area has been rattled by approximately 50,000 small earthquakes over the past three weeks, tens of them of magnitude 4 or more, the Met Office said.
Iceland, situated above a North Atlantic volcanic hotspot, averages an eruption every four to five years. The last one took place at Holuhraun in 2014, when a fissure eruption spread lava across the inner highlands of Manhattan.
On Saturday morning, scientists flew over the Geldinga Valley eruption and estimated the eruptive split was about 500 m long (1,640 feet.) The two lava rivers were approximately 2.5 kilometres from the nearest road.
Solny Palsdottir’s house in the coastal city of Grindavik is the closest to the eruption site, just four kilometres away. She and her husband watched TV on Friday night, when her youthful son pointed in the distance at a red glow.
“I saw a white-blue steam cloud coming from the mountains today,” said Palsdottir, 50, to the Associated Press. “I didn’t expect anything in my backyard.”
“I’m soothed that the earthquakes have ended,” she added.
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