In Iceland, a Fiery Show of Lava and Smoke

Pall Viggosson, a tour information in Iceland, was driving a van carrying 9 British vacationers on Monday evening in quest of the northern lights. However as a substitute of the greenish glow of the aurora borealis, he noticed crimson — flames and smoke from a volcanic eruption that Iceland had been uneasily awaiting.

The world, the Reykjanes Peninsula, had been experiencing robust seismic exercise since October, a harbinger of an imminent eruption. The earthquakes — there have been as many as 1,400 in a single 24-hour interval in November — prompted the evacuation of the city of Grindavik and the momentary closing of the Blue Lagoon, a high vacationer attraction. With these shaky warnings, Icelanders have been girding for the eruption that got here Monday evening.

“I spotted shortly this was no atypical gentle air pollution,” Mr. Viggosson mentioned. He pulled over on the freeway so the vacationers may take images.

Quickly, the freeway, which connects the capital to Keflavik Worldwide Airport, grew to become busy, as different curious spectators drove from Reykjavik and close by cities to catch a glimpse of the spectacle for themselves: reddish and orange skies, billowing smoke and lava fountains reaching over 300 toes into the air.

“Towards the mountains the flames have been big, and the fissure size grew bigger and bigger,” Mr. Viggosson mentioned.

One of many spectators was Bjorn Steinbekk, the top of a advertising and marketing and consulting firm, who left his Reykjavik house as quickly as he heard concerning the eruption on Monday evening. Utilizing a drone, he captured footage of the lava taking pictures into the sky. Even for somebody who has chased many eruptions within the final two years, “final evening was an entire new chapter from something we’ve seen earlier than,” Mr. Steinbekk mentioned. “It was rather more violent for 2 or three hours, with greater strokes and a number of lava popping out.”

Iceland is susceptible to volcanic exercise. It straddles two tectonic plates, that are divided by an undersea mountain chain that oozes molten sizzling rock, or magma. However the Reykjanes volcanic system in southwestern Iceland had been dormant for 800 years. In the previous few years, nevertheless, magma started to collect below the floor.

José Alvarado, a pilot with the low-cost Icelandic airline Play, obtained a view of the eruption from the cockpit of his aircraft. He described what he noticed as a giant glow.

“The quantity of sunshine you bought by means of the clouds was fairly superb — it was fully crimson,” mentioned Mr. Alvarado, who was flying to Reykjavik from Lisbon. As soon as he heard from air visitors management that the eruption wouldn’t produce ash clouds and subsequently posed no danger, he gave passengers an replace and advised they give the impression of being out of the appropriate aspect of the plane for a view.

By 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the eruption had began easing. By in a while Tuesday, lava was spewing at a a lot decrease depth, Mr. Steinbekk mentioned, talking from close to the eruption, as he ready to launch his drone to get extra footage.

Kjartan Adolfsson, an accountant residing in Grindavik, a city of greater than 3,500, evacuated with different residents final month after heightened seismic exercise prompted issues that an eruption was imminent. The eruption on Monday was “uncomfortably near city,” he mentioned, though he was relieved that the lava was flowing away from Grindavik.

For weeks, Mr. Adolfsson, 59, mentioned, he had been bracing for the worst. He mentioned that the primary time he needed to evacuate due to an eruption was 50 years in the past. His mother and father woke him up in the course of the evening at their house on the island of Heimaey, Iceland’s largest island settlement. They packed shortly and sailed away from the city, solely to search out out later that their house had been destroyed by lava.

The native authorities haven’t but indicated when Grindavik shall be secure sufficient for residents to return. Nearly everybody had evacuated on the time of the eruption.

Stefan Kristjansson, who owns a number of fishing boats, was unwinding in his out of doors sizzling tub in Grindavik on Monday evening when he noticed the horizon gentle up. He shortly obtained dressed, left some meals out for his sheep and drove to Reykjavik. “I wish to be again earlier than Christmas,” he mentioned.