Tourists and residents have been evacuated after a volcanic eruption in Iceland opened a half-mile-long fissure, according to the country’s meteorological office.
Dramatic pictures show smoke and dramatic flows of glowing hot yellow and orange lava coming out of the chasm, the latest in a series of outbreaks near Iceland’s capital in recent years.
Magma forced through the earth’s crust opened a massive fissure of length between 700 m and 1,000 m (0.4 miles and 0.6 miles), Iceland’s meteorological office said, with the first signs of the eruption giving scant warning.
Public broadcaster RUV said people had been evacuated from the Blue Lagoon, a luxury geothermal spa resort, and the nearby town of Grindavik, citing police.
Grindavik, home to nearly 4,000 before an evacuation order in 2023, has stayed mostly deserted since, for fear of the periodic threat from lava flows and related earthquakes.
The Reykjanes eruptions have not yet posed a threat to Reykjavik, nor ejected large volumes of ash into the stratosphere, so air traffic has not been disrupted.
The North Atlantic nation has experienced a dozen eruptions since geological systems on its Reykjanes peninsula reactivated in 2021.
Lava emerges through a fissure following a volcano eruption near Grindavik, Reykjanes, Iceland July 16, 2025
A volcano erupted on Wednesday in southwest Iceland, authorities said, with live media images showing it belched smoke and dramatic flows of glowing hot yellow and orange lava, the latest in a series of outbreaks near the capital in recent years
Magma forced through the earth’s crust opened a massive fissure of length between 700 m and 1,000 m
The Reykjanes eruptions have not yet posed a threat to Reykjavik
Iceland has experienced a dozen eruptions since geological systems on its Reykjanes peninsula reactivated in 2021
Local media said tourists evacuated from the Blue Lagoon
Experts have said the eruptions in the area could recur for decades, or even centuries.
The fissure eruptions, as the outbreaks are known, are characterised by lava flows emerging from long cracks, rather than from a central crater.
