REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) – Steam and lava spewed on Monday from a new crack in an Icelandic volcano that began to erupt last month, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of hikers who came to see the spectacle.
The new crack, first identified by a tourist helicopter, was about 500 meters (550 yards) long and about a kilometer (about half a mile) from the site of the original eruption in the Geldinga Valley.
Iceland’s Emergency Management Department announced an immediate evacuation from the area. He said there was no imminent danger to life due to the distance from the popular hiking trails.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the new volcanic activity was not expected to affect traffic at nearby Keflavik airport.
The long-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in southwest Iceland, came to life on March 20, after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the past three weeks. It was the first volcanic eruption in the area in almost 800 years.
The volcano’s proximity to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, has brought a steady flow of tourists to the area, even with the country in partial blockade to fight the coronavirus. About 30,000 people have visited the area since the eruption began, according to the Icelandic Tourism Council.
Live images of the area showed small jets of lava coming out of the new fissure.
Geophysicist Magnus Gudmundsson said the volcanic eruption may be moving north from its original location.
“We now see less lava coming out of the two original craters,” he told the Associated Press. “This could be the start of the second phase.”
Iceland, located above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one volcanic eruption every four to five years. The last one was in Holuhraun in 2014, when a fissure eruption spread Manhattan-sized lava over the inland highlands.
In 2010, the ashes of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano interrupted many international air travels for several days.