After months of earthquakes, a long-dormant volcano in the southwest of Iceland erupted on Friday night, leading to dramatic videos and splendid red skies near the country\u2019s capital city.<\/p>\n
According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the eruption near Mount Fagradalsfjall, about 20 miles southwest of Reykjavik, took place at 8:45 pm. Though considered small, the eruption created a fissure about 1,640 feet long, and spewed more than 10 million square feet of lava, sometimes in fountains reaching heights of more than 300 feet.<\/p>\n
It was the first volcanic eruption in this part of Iceland \u2014 the Reykjanes Peninsula, home to Reykjavik, where most of the country\u2019s residents live \u2014 in 781 years. And it was the first time this particular volcano had gone off in about 6,000 years.<\/p>\n
The eruption, in the Geldinga Valley, was remote enough that evacuations were not necessary, and no structures were endangered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of now it is not considered a threat to surrounding towns,\u201d said Iceland\u2019s prime minister, Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir, on Twitter on Friday night. \u201cWe ask people to keep away from the immediate area and stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts warned residents to beware emissions of dangerous gases, including carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, and there were some resulting traffic jams. Drones were temporarily prohibited from flying over the area, to allow scientists first access, but flights in and out of the international Keflavik Airport have not been affected.<\/p>\n
The head of emergency management in the country told people to close their windows and stay inside to avoid volcanic gas pollution, which could spread as far as Thorl\u00e1ksh\u00f6fn, a city about 30 miles south of Reykjavik.<\/p>\n
But on Saturday, the meteorological office said, \u201cCurrently, gas pollution is not expected to cause much discomfort for people except close up to the source of the eruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eruption is ongoing, and could last for \u201ca day or a month,\u201d Magn\u00fas Tumi Gudmundsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, told R\u00daV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.<\/p>\n
That makes this latest Icelandic geologic event starkly different from the large-scale earthquake at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010, which caused more than 100,000 flights across Europe to be canceled for weeks afterward as ash spread across northern Europe and Great Britain. That was described as the largest shutdown of airspace since WWII.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we see, the smaller this eruption gets,\u201d P\u00e1ll Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, told the Associated Press on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Despite the relatively small size, the eruption provided residents with unique views \u2014 and people across the region shared photos of the skies, as scientists set up a livestream of the flowing lava.<\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s location makes it particularly susceptible to earthquakes \u2014 and eruptions <\/p>\n
Iceland is no stranger to volcanic activity. There is usually an eruption every four or five years because the island is in a region that is particularly susceptible to seismic activity. The most recent one, in 2014, was at Holuhraun, a lava field in the Icelandic Highlands.<\/p>\n
Earthquakes are a familiar experience, too; since 2014, the country registered between 1,000 and 3,000 earthquakes per year. But since December 2019, that number has dramatically increased, according to the New York Times; scientists are still working to understand why.<\/p>\n
In the last week alone, Iceland experienced more than 18,000 earthquakes, with more than 3,000 on Sunday. At least 400 had taken place in the area of the volcano the day before the eruption \u2014 and that was a relatively calm day, according to state meteorologists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is somewhat less seismic activity in comparison to previous mornings where the numbers have been around 1,000 earthquakes,\u201d the meteorological office said.<\/p>\n