A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland, sending molten lava into a nearby town and setting houses ablaze, authorities say, in the second eruption the area has seen in weeks. <\/p>\n
There was no immediate threat to the residents of Grindavik, a small fishing town, which is under evacuation orders. <\/p>\n
A webcam set up by Iceland\u2019s public broadcaster RUV showed a stream of lava flowing into Grindav\u00edk, with the burning buildings just meters away from other houses. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, <\/strong>Iceland\u2019s National Commissioner of Police ordered residents in Grindav\u00edk, first evacuated in November, to evacuate again by Monday night after volcanic fissures opened on roads in the area. <\/p>\n Sixty households \u2013 10% of the\u00a0town\u2019s usual population \u2013 have been evacuated so far, Gudmundsdottir said, adding that many people\u00a0had not yet returned after last month\u2019s eruption. There was no danger to human life, Gudmundsdottir said. <\/p>\n Following the eruption, police raised the alert level. An Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter has also been deployed to monitor the situation. <\/p>\n Hours before the eruption, Iceland\u2019s meteorological office had reported an earthquake. <\/p>\n Grindav\u00edk, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Iceland\u2019s capital city Reykjav\u00edk on the Reykjanes peninsula, was previously evacuated following weeks of seismic activity which culminated in a dramatic volcanic eruption that expelled bursts of lava and sent huge plumes of smoke into the sky. <\/p>\n The crack after December\u2019s eruption measured around four kilometers, while Sunday\u2019s eruption crack was around a quarter of the length. <\/p>\n The town is also home to Iceland\u2019s famed Blue Lagoon, which draws tourists to its steaming geothermal water and is one of the country\u2019s most visited attractions. <\/p>\n \u201cIt can be assumed that the order will be in effect for the upcoming three weeks,\u201d the country\u2019s Civil Protection Agency said in a statement, adding that the only exceptions to the order would be for authorities to conduct official business or for residents \u201cfor short periods while salvaging valuables.\u201d <\/p>\n The latest evacuation order comes after the Icelandic Meteorological Office reported on Friday that hazards associated with volcanic fissures were deemed higher risk than in its previous assessment. <\/p>\n \u201cBased on the Civil Protection Department\u2019s hazard assessment issued on January 12, it is not considered justifiable to continue to dwell in Grindav\u00edk, in light of public safety considerations,\u201d the government agency said. <\/p>\n The amount of magma had reached a level similar to when a previous eruption occurred in December, the agency said. But in the case of the latest eruption, magma could \u201cmigrate further south\u201d \u2013 as compared to the previous eruption \u2013 and possibly reach Grindav\u00edk town. <\/p>\n The eruption in December is thought to have been the largest so far, according to authorities <\/p>\n A state of emergency was declared in November. <\/p>\n Iceland\u00a0is home to\u00a032\u00a0active volcanoes and sits on a tectonic plate boundary that continually splits apart, pushing North America and Eurasia away from each other along the line of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. <\/p>\n As such, the country is accustomed to volcanic eruptions, though they often occur in the wilderness, away from populated areas. <\/p>\n The B\u00e1r\u00f0arbunga volcanic system in the center of the country erupted in 2014, producing lava that covered 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) of highland but didn\u2019t damage any communities. <\/p>\n Experts do not expect the latest series of eruptions to cause the same level of chaos as seen in 2010 when the Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull volcano erupted, since it is unlikely to involve glacial ice that led to a huge ash cloud. <\/p>\n About 100,000 flights were canceled, affecting 2 million people, as a result of the ash spewed out by the 2010 eruption, which threatened to stall aircraft engines and cause electrical failure. <\/p>\n\n A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland, sending molten lava into a nearby town and setting houses ablaze, authorities say, in the second eruption the area has seen in weeks. There was no immediate threat to the residents of Grindavik, a small fishing town, which is under evacuation orders. A webcam set up by Iceland\u2019s public <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Iceland\u2019s volcanoes<\/h2>\n