REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) – A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in southwest Iceland, came to life on Friday night, spewing lava on two sides in the area’s first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.
Initial aerial images, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, have shown a relatively small eruption so far, with two lava flows running in opposite directions. The glow of the lava can be seen on the outskirts of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, which is about 32 kilometers (20 miles) away.
The Emergency Management Department said it was not anticipating evacuations because the volcano is in a remote valley, about 2.5 kilometers from the nearest road.
The volcano of Fagradals Mountain had been dormant for 6,000 years, and the Reykjanes Peninsula had not seen the eruption of any volcano in 781 years.
There have been signs of a possible eruption recently, with earthquakes occurring daily for the past three weeks. But volcanologists were still taken by surprise because the seismic activity had subsided before the eruption.