New volcanic eruption close to geothermal plant and Blue Lagoon in Iceland

Lava flow over Grindavik road at the intersection to the Blue Lagoon, Iceland (source: Icelandic Road Authority/ Vegagardin via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Vegagerdin))

At 6:00 AM (local time) of the 8th of February 2024, a new volcanic eruption hit the Reykjanes peninsula in the Southwest of Iceland. While a bit further away from the fishing town of Grindavik that was hit by lava flows in January, the fissure opened now is seeing lava flowing towards the Blue Lagoon and the Svartsengi geothermal plant.

With the eruptions in December and January, work had been underway for a protective wall being dug around the facilities at Svartsengi. The hope remains that it will not have a devastating impact on the facilities.

However, local heating provider HS Veitur has announced that the flow of lava is now directly impacting an important pipe providing heat to the wider Reykjanes area. This includes the city of Keflavik, Grindavik and neighbouring communities, and likely as well the international airport.

It remains unclear on the repercussions that the volcanic activity will have, but it is clearly an impactful event for the local communities and Iceland as a whole. With the road to the Blue Lagoon on the Eastern side being overflown by lava, the effect on local communities certainly is quite profound. It will have to be seen how the walls dug so far will help mitigate damage to the facilities, but access clearly has been hampered.

For now though there is hope that lava flowing from the fissure will not last for many days, like the previous fissure from December 2023. We will report more details in the coming days.

Source: MBL.is and VISIR