Reassurance over flights as sleepy volcano blows its lid

REYKJAVIK, Iceland－The eruption of a long-dormant volcano that sent streams of lava flowing across a small valley in southwestern Iceland is easing and should not interfere with air travel, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

The fissure eruption began about 8:45 pm on Friday in the Geldinga Valley, about 32 kilometers southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, the Met Office said. The eruption is minor and there were no signs of ash or dust that could disrupt aviation, the agency said.

"The more we see, the smaller this eruption gets," geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press on Saturday after monitoring the volcano throughout the night.

The southwestern corner of Iceland is the most heavily populated part of the country. The Department of Emergency Management said it does not expect evacuations, unless levels of volcanic gases rise significantly.

Keflavik Airport, Iceland's international air traffic hub, said flights remained on schedule since the eruption began.

"There is no indication of production of ash and tephra, and there is no imminent hazard for aviation," the Met Office said.

In 2010 an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland sent clouds of ash and dust into the atmosphere, interrupting air travel between Europe and North America because of concerns the material could damage jet engines. More than 100,000 flights were grounded, stranding millions of passengers.

The Geldinga Valley eruption is the first on the Reykjanes Peninsula in almost 800 years.

Seismic activity

The area began rumbling with increased seismic activity 15 months ago, and the tremors increased dramatically last month.

Over the past three weeks, the area has been rattled by about 50,000 small earthquakes, dozens of them magnitude four or stronger, the Met Office said.

Iceland, located above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The last one was at Holuhraun in 2014, when a fissure eruption spread lava the size of Manhattan over the interior highland region.

Scientists flew over the Geldinga Valley eruption on Saturday morning and estimated the eruptive fissure was about 500 meters long. The two streams of lava were about 2.5 km from the nearest road.

Solny Palsdottir's house is the closest to the site of the eruption, just 4 km away in the coastal town of Grindavik. She and her husband were watching TV on Friday night when her teenage son pointed out a red glow in the distance.

"Today, I see a white-blue cloud of steam coming from the mountains," Palsdottir, 50, told The Associated Press. "Not something I expected to have in my backyard."

"I am just relieved the earthquakes are over," she added.

Agencies via Xinhua