An Iceland volcano erupts again but spares the nearby town of Grindavik for now

GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Thursday night for the sixth time since December, spewing purple lava by way of a brand new fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The eruption started shortly after 9 p.m. following a collection of sturdy earthquakes and inside the hour a 4-kilometer (2.4-mile) fissure lower by way of the Sundhnúkur crater.

Iceland authorities say the eruption’s results stay localized with street closures however don’t threaten the inhabitants.

Halldór Björnsson, head of climate and local weather on the Norwegian Meteorological Company, informed the Icelandic information portal Vísir, that not like earlier eruptions, the lava movement is just not heading for the city of Grindavik that was largely evacuated in December when the volcano got here to life after being dormant for 800 years.

Magnús Tuma Guðmundsson, a geophysicist, who flew over the eruption facilities this night informed the web site that “if this continues like this, Grindavík is just not at risk due to this. In fact, we don’t know what’s going to occur within the close to future, however it’s probably that this has reached its peak after which it is going to begin to subside like the opposite eruptions.”

As information of the eruption unfold, a whole lot of curious onlookers drove to close by vantage factors for a view of the beautiful pure phenomenon that has change into a key tourism attraction.

“We simply thought that it was the northern lights,” mentioned Mahnoor Ali, visiting from Maryland within the U.S. “It’s like the best factor I’ve seen in my complete life, actually.”

Buddies Ameerul Awalludin from Malaysia and Shohei Miyamito from Japan had been with an Icelandic pal once they heard the information and rapidly rushed to close the eruption.

“We now have like a volcano as properly,” mentioned Miyamito, however “we can’t see lava like this.”

The eruption is just not anticipated to influence air journey.

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Keyton reported from Berlin.