REYKJAVIK – Steam and lava spurted Monday from a new fissure at an Icelandic volcano that began erupting last month, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of hikers who came to see the spectacle.
The new fissure – first spotted by a sightseeing helicopter – was about 500 meters long and about a kilometer (around a half-mile) from the original eruption site in the Geldinga Valley.
The Icelandic Department of Emergency Management announced an immediate evacuation of the area.
The long-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland flared to life March 20 after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the past three weeks. It was the area’s first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.
The volcano’s proximity to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, about 32 kilometers away, brought a steady stream of tourists to the area, even with the country in partial lockdown to combat the coronavirus disease 2019. Around 30,000 people visited the area since the eruption began, the Icelandic Tourist Board said.(AP)
