(Bloomberg) — Iceland was hit by a volcanic eruption in a peninsula near the capital city Reykjavik following recent seismic activity in the area.
A fissure eruption was reported to have begun in an uninhabited area around 19 miles (30 kilometers) from the capital on Wednesday, according to Iceland’s meteorological office. While the main airport, Keflavik, was briefly put on alert in line with standard practice during volcanic events, no flights were cancelled and the airport continues to operate.
No lives or infrastructure are in danger at present, according to the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. Authorities plan to inspect the area from a helicopter.
“Lava is coming from a crack in the ground,” Einar Hjorleifsson, natural hazard specialist at the met office, said by phone. “This is a fissure eruption and we expect it to have little effect on air traffic.”
The volcanic activity is taking place on the Reykjanes peninsula, the same area where a six-month eruption began in early 2021, the first in that location in almost 800 years. Grindavik, a fishing town of about 3,600 people, is nearby.
In a fissure eruption, magma flows rather than explodes. The rupture is about 300 meters (1,000 feet) long and sits on the northern edge of the lava that emerged in the previous eruption.
The shares of Icelandair hf advanced as much as 4.3% and Fly Play hf rose 1.8% as investors bet the carriers could benefit from increased tourism into the country.
One of the most disruptive volcanic eruptions in Iceland’s recent history occurred in 2010, when Eyjafjallajokull in the southern part of the country released a plume of ash so vast that it grounded air traffic across Europe for weeks, resulting in the cancellation of 100,000 flights and affecting over 10 million people. Unlike southern Iceland, the Reykjanes peninsula is not known to have volcanoes capable of producing large, explosive eruptions.
Iceland, which has 30 volcanic systems and more than 600 hot springs, is one of the most geologically active places on earth, due to its position on the mid-Atlantic ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
Satellite data indicates “that the magma flow was double what was observed in the last eruption,” Hjorleifsson at the met office said. “What that means in terms of the size of the eruption is unclear at this point.”
(Updates with airline shares in seventh paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
