GRINDAVIK, Iceland. Lava was still gushing from a volcano in southwestern Iceland on Thursday, but activity had calmed significantly since it erupted the previous day.
Wednesday’s eruption was the fifth and most powerful since the volcanic system near Grindavik reawakened in December after 800 years, spewing record levels of lava as its fissure grew up to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles). ) of length.
Volcanologist Dave McGarvie calculated that the amount of lava that initially flowed from the crater could have buried London’s 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium under 15 meters (49 feet) of lava per minute.
“These magma jets reach about 50 meters (165 feet) deep into the atmosphere,” said McGarvie, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University. “That immediately strikes me as a powerful eruption. And that was my first impression… Then some numbers came out, estimating how much it was coming out per minute or per second and it was, ‘wow.'”
The activity once again threatened Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800, and prompted the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions.
Grindavik, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, has been under threat since a series of earthquakes in November forced an evacuation before the initial Dec. 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption consumed several buildings.
Protective barriers on the outskirts of Grindavik diverted lava on Wednesday, but the evacuated town remained without power and two of the town’s three access roads were flooded with lava.
“I just quite like the situation compared to how it looked yesterday at the beginning of the eruption,” Grindavik mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.
McGarvie said the eruption was more powerful than the four that preceded it because the largest amount of magma had accumulated in an underground chamber before breaking through the earth’s surface and shooting into the sky.
The rapid, powerful onset of the eruption followed by its rapid subsidence several hours later is the pattern researchers have witnessed at this volcano, McGarvie said. The unknown is when it will end.
“This could go on for quite some time,” McGarvie said. “We are really in new territory because eruptions like this have never been closely witnessed in this part of Iceland.”
Iceland, which sits on a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, suffers from periodic eruptions. The most disruptive in recent times was the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and caused widespread airspace closures in Europe.
None of the eruptions of the current cycle have had an impact on aviation.
___
Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from London.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
