Reykjavik, Iceland:
Iceland’s spectacular, two-week-old volcanic eruption entered a new phase Monday as tv photos showed a fresh fissure had opened up and begun spitting out lava.
The 200-metre (yards) lengthy fissure is a kilometre from the initial eruption, which sits in the Geldingadalur valley, mentioned an Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) statement.
It opened up about midday neighborhood time (1200 GMT), the IMO added.
Live tv footage on state broadcaster RUV showed tiny amounts of smoking orange magma on the ground. The new stream of lava is operating down into an additional valley, named Merardalir.
Images released by Iceland’s Civil Protection workplace showed a lengthy, thin stream of magma flowing down via the hills for hundreds of metres from the new fissure, the entire scene shrouded in fumes.
Initially, the lava was moving at almost 10 metres per second down the steep slope, “but it has slowed considerably now,” vulcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson told AFP.
“My feeling is that I don’t see any sign of this stopping,” Thordarson added. “We’re going to see this for a while,” mentioned the vulcanologist, without having hazarding a guess at the duration.
The Meteorological Office mentioned helicopters had been creating confident individuals had evacuated the website and that scientists had been on their way to evaluate the crack.
The authorities have sealed off access to the volcano website as a precaution and begun evacuating sightseers, mentioned the IMO. People have been flocking there to see the spectacle due to the fact the eruption started on March 19.
Icelandic professionals, who initially believed the eruption close to Mount Fagradalsfjall would be a brief-lived affair, now believe it could final many weeks or more. The volcano lies just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital Reykjavik.
While Iceland has more active volcanoes than any other nation in Europe, the Reykjanes peninsula has not knowledgeable an eruption due to the fact the 13th century — even though that one lasted about 30 years, from 1210 to 1240.
At the final count by Iceland’s tourism board, 36,293 individuals had by Sunday visited the website, exactly where lava has been pouring from two tiny craters, covering virtually 30 hectares (74 acres).
In 2010 an eruption at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano sent large clouds of smoke and ash into the atmosphere, disrupting air website traffic for more than a week and cancelling more than one hundred,000 flights worldwide, which left some 10 million passengers stranded.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)