A large ash cloud is not expected as in 2010.
A volcano has erupted in Iceland.
It informs the Icelandic Meteorological Institute on Friday night shortly before midnight.
The volcano is located about 30 kilometers from Reykjavik on the peninsula of Reykjanes.
– A volcanic eruption has begun in Fagradalsfjall. The flight code is red, the institute writes on Twitter.
The eruption began at a quarter to nine on Friday night, and it is rated as a small one of a kind. The crack is about 500 meters long, and the area with magma covers about one square kilometer, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute writes on Twitter.
Although the pictures are spectacular, so far there is no reason to worry, says Rikke Pedersen.
She is the head of the Nordic Volcanological Institute and is currently in Iceland.
– It is a very calm scenario we have. It is in an area that does not affect any infrastructure and it is not an ash eruption.
The system has been inactive for 900 years according to the Meteorological Institute. The most recent eruption on Reykjanes took place about 800 years ago in the year 1240.
Therefore, it has actually also been expected that there would be an outbreak.
– We know that the Reykjanes peninsula has these periods with active eruptions, and then it goes on hibernate for a longer period, so we knew it was about to be over, says Rikke Pedersen.
Iceland’s largest airport, Keflavik Airport, is, despite the initials messages to the contrary not closed, writes the news agency Reuters.
In 2010, European aviation was paralyzed by an eruption in another volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, which sent a giant ash cloud to the sky.
Now, for other reasons, there are not many planes in the air at the moment, but there is no reason to fear a recurrence this time, reassures the head of the volcanological institute.
– As it looks at the moment, we have lava flowing out on the surface and it does not form ash. The worst case scenario imaginable for air traffic is that the fissure opens up into the sea and comes into contact with the water there. It would create explosiveness. But that is not a scenario we are looking at at the moment.
