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A volcano has erupted near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, spewing lava into the night sky after thousands of small earthquakes in recent weeks.
The eruption occurred at Fagradalsfjall, a mountain on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 19 miles (30 km) southwest of the capital on Friday.
The volcano had previously been dormant for 6,000 years and the peninsula had not seen a volcano eruption for 781 years.
About four hours after the initial eruption at 8.45pm GMT, the lava covered about a square kilometer or nearly 200 football fields.
“I can see the bright red sky from my window,” said Rannveig Gudmundsdottir, a resident of the city of Grindavik, just five miles (8 km) from the eruption.
“Everyone here is getting in their cars to drive there,” he said.
More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the last four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes recorded each year since 2014.
The eruption did not pose an immediate danger to people in Grindavik or critical infrastructure, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), which classified the eruption as small.
A 500- to 750-meter-long fissure opened at the eruption site, spewing lava fountains up to 100 meters high, said Bjarki Friis of the meteorological office.
Residents of the town of Thorlakshofn, east of the eruption site, were asked to stay indoors to avoid exposure to volcanic gases, Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said. The wind was blowing from the west.
Unlike the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which halted approximately 900,000 flights and forced hundreds of Icelanders from their homes, this eruption is not expected to spew much ash or smoke into the atmosphere.
Situated between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, among the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hotspot as the two plates move in opposite directions.
The source of the eruption is a large body of molten rock, known as magma, that has made its way to the surface in recent weeks, causing earthquakes.
However, the number of earthquakes had slowed in recent days, prompting geologists to say that an eruption would be less likely.
Reykjavik’s Keflavik International Airport was not closed after the eruption, but each airline had to decide whether or not it wanted to fly, the IMO said.
Arrivals and departures on the airport website showed no interruptions.
Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and AP
