This is the moment plane passengers see lava flowing from an Icelandic volcano as workers fight to reconnect hot water supplies to thousands of homes.
Amazing footage taken from a plane shows the Grindavik volcano erupting – with lava seen flowing across the land below as the plane headed to Reykjavik airport to land yesterday.
Staff from the Dalkeith High School in Midlothian, Scotland, recorded the mesmerising scene, which saw fountains of lava spew from the fissure in south-west Iceland.
Icelanders were working yesterday to get hot water supplies fixed in thousands of houses a day after a third volcanic eruption in two months, as experts said the eruption seemed to be ending.
Repairs on the network – which is also a source of heating – went on overnight in temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius, utility company HS Orka said.
The lava flow that destroyed the pipes the previous day had made it difficult for the repair teams to gain access, it added on its website.
Staff from the Dalkeith High School in Midlothian, Scotland, recorded the mesmerising scene, which saw fountains of lava spew from the fissure in south-west Iceland
Icelanders were working yesterday to get hot water supplies fixed in thousands of houses a day after a third volcanic eruption in two months
Repairs on the network – which is also a source of heating – went on overnight in temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius, utility company HS Orka said
Lava from a volcanic eruption flows across a road north of Grindavik, Iceland
Employees of the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant work to connect the hot water pipeline
A lava field near the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and retreat hotel in Grindavik
Experts at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said that volcanic activity was significantly down from the previous day’s eruption.
The IMO said in a statement: ‘No eruptive activity was observed in a drone-flight over the eruptive site carried out at noon (GMT) today.
‘This suggests that the eruption is ending. Volcanic tremor is no longer being detected on seismic sensors.’
An estimated 15 million cubic metres of lava flowed out in the first seven hours of the eruption, early Thursday, it said.
The lava spewed out from a new volcanic fissure on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula in the country’s southwest.
It cut the supply of hot water, which is also used to heat houses, in the southern part of the peninsula, known as Sudurnes, home to some 28,000 inhabitants.
Dramatic images showed lava flowing over a road leading to Iceland’s famed Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, which had been evacuated, and the flow also crossed over a key water pipe.
‘The plan is to fix the problem hopefully in the next few hours,’ Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, spokeswoman for Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, said yesterday.
‘It will take a few hours to put the hot water back in the system.’
In the meantime, schools, public pools and sport facilities in the region were closed on Friday.
Electricity is still working, but the authorities are urging people in the region to limit consumption.
The lava flow that destroyed the pipes the previous day had made it difficult for the repair teams to gain access. (Lava from a volcanic eruption flows across a road north of Grindavik)
Molten lava and billowing smoke pours out of a fissure during the volcanic eruption
A group of people observe molten lava and billowing smoke pouring out of a fissure during a volcanic eruption near Grindavik
Billowing smoke and flowing lava pouring out of a new fissure during a new volcanic eruption
This was the third eruption since December, in the same area as two previous ones, on December 18 and the second on January 14, near the fishing village of Grindavik.
The 4,000 residents of Grindavik had to be evacuated on November 11 after hundreds of earthquakes damaged buildings and opened up huge cracks in roads, shrouding the village’s future in doubt.
The eruptions were some 40 kilometres southwest of the capital Reykjavik.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages an eruption every four to five years, although until March 2021, the Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries.
Fresh eruptions occurred in August 2022, and July and December 2023, leading volcanologists to say it was probably the start of a new era of activity in the region.
The country straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
Grindavik, a town of 3,800 people about 30 miles southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, was evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years with a series of earthquakes that opened large cracks in the earth between the town and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north.
The volcano eventually erupted on December 18, sending lava flowing away from Grindavik. A second eruption that began on January 14 sent lava towards the town.
Defensive walls that had been bolstered since the first eruption stopped some of the flow, but they could not save some of the town’s buildings.
Two cracks formed during the second eruption, with the second appearing right on the edge of town, sending orange lava flowing into the streets and reducing three homes to ashes.
Due to the volcanic eruptions, Grindavik’s future has been shrouded in uncertainty for the last few months, with residents still unable to return home.