A volcanic eruption causes lava to enter nearby homes

The eruption of the Svartsengi volcano in Grindavik, Iceland, as reported by the U.S. Department of Emergency Services

This is the second time in a month that a volcano has erupted just outside Grindavík, a coastal town about 25 miles from the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík.

Grindavik is a town of 3,800 people about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. The community was evacuated in November after a series of small earthquakes opened large cracks in the earth near Slingarfell. The Blue Lagoon spa was closed for a short time.

In the weeks since then, defensive walls had been built around the volcano in hopes of directing lava away from the community. lava is moving toward the community and the walls of the barriers built to keep it out have been breeched.

“This continues to surprise us,” Benedikt Ófeigsson of the meteorological office told RUV. After the eruption started, things slowed down and began to pick up speed again about an hour ago. We are no longer seeing a slowdown in the town.”

The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted transatlantic air travel for months.

The eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula isn’t likely to release large amounts of ash into the air. Isavia’s press officer said that operations are normal at Keflavk Airport.

Before last month’s eruption, the area known broadly as Svartsengi volcano had been dormant for around 780 years. The volcano is only a short distance west of Fagradalsfjall, which had been inactive for 6,000 years before flaring to life in March. The most powerful eruption in the last few years was the latest one.

In his address to the nation on Sunday, the president said there was a “daunting period of upheaval” for those in the Reykjanes peninsula.

Threats to infrastructure are being monitored, with no flights being disrupted yet. At least three homes have either burned down or been overtaken by lava, according to the Icelandic broadcaster RUV.

S’eparation du sombre homme de Lvk Ptursson dans un role d’Esismique en Iceland

But in his speech, Jóhannesson offered his sympathy to the loved ones of Lúðvík Pétursson, a man who went missing in a work accident in Grindavík last week.

According to Sky News, the 50-year-old Pétursson was filling crevasses formed by volcanic activity and earthquakes when he fell in a crack that had opened after last month’s eruption.

Iceland is a hotspot for seismic activity, with 32 active volcanoes. A volcano erupts roughly every five years in the country, though eruptions have occurred more frequently recently.