AFP UK

Curious onlookers made their way Thursday to the site of a volcano erupting near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik to marvel at the bubbling lava, a day after the fissure appeared in an uninhabited valley.

The eruption was around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Reykjavik, near the site of the Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwestern Iceland that spewed magma for six months between March and September 2021.

While last year’s eruption was easily accessible on foot and drew more than 435,000 tourists, the new eruption is trickier to access, requiring a strenuous 90-minute hilly hike from the closest car park. 

Despite that, more than 1,830 people visited the site on the first day of the eruption, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board, and more visitors were seen trekking to the scene early Thursday.

The fissure was estimated to be around 360 metres (1,181 feet) long, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Thursday, with lava fountains about 10-15 metres high.

The average lava flow in the first hours was estimated at 32 cubic metres per second, according to measurements done Wednesday at 1705 GMT — 3.5 hours after the eruption began — by scientists from the Institute of Earth Sciences.

That is about four or five times more than at the beginning of last year’s eruption.

“The current eruption is therefore much more powerful,” the Institute wrote in a Facebook post.

The lava covered an area of about 74,000 square metres, it said. 

By comparison, last year’s six-month eruption saw 150 million cubic metres of lava spilled over 4.85 square kilometres.

Officials had initially urged people to refrain from visiting the site until a danger assessment had been conducted.

But on Thursday, the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said only that young children should not walk up to the eruption site.

Gases from a volcanic eruption — especially sulphur dioxide — can be elevated in the immediate vicinity, may pose a danger to health and even be fatal.

Gas pollution can also be carried by the wind.

Mount Fagradalsfjall belongs to the Krysuvik volcanic system on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland.

Known as the land of fire and ice, Iceland has 32 volcanic systems currently considered active, the highest number in Europe. The country has had an eruption every five years on average.

A Beluga whale, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, has been seen in France’s Seine river, with authorities urging people to keep their distance to avoid distressing the animal.

Officials in the Eure department of Normandy said late Wednesday that images suggested it was a beluga separated from its pod, though they did not specify its size nor where exactly it was seen.

An adult beluga can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length, and while they migrate away from the Arctic in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far south.

“Studies of its health are underway to determine the best measures to take to ensure its chances of survival,” the Eure regional authorities said.

In May, a killer whale — technically part of the dolphin family — was found dead in the Seine between the port city of Le Havre and Rouen.

The animal had been stranded in the river, which flows through Paris to the Channel, and was unable to find its way back to the ocean despite attempts by officials to guide it.

The Eure authorities said lone belugas do sometimes swim farther south than usual, and are able to temporarily survive in fresh water.

In a wave tank at a robot laboratory in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, engineers observe in silence as an underwater drone rises stealthily to the surface.

The team, which led the development of the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at Heriot-Watt university, believe the submersible machine is a game-changer for offshore wind farms, obviating the need for divers.

The engineers reckon it will soon be ready to perform inspections and maintenance at wind farms, transforming the nature of the high-risk and costly endeavours just as the industry is set for huge expansion.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to make the UK the “Saudi Arabia” of wind power, with plans to generate enough electricity from offshore to power every UK home by 2030.

While Johnson is on his way out of office, the industry is banking on the expansion plans, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the price of traditional carbon energy through the roof.

“We have to imagine that in 10, 15 years time there will be hundreds of wind farms, which means thousands of wind turbines all across the coast of the UK,” Yvan Petillot, a robotics and autonomous systems professor at Heriot-Watt, told AFP.

“You also have hydrogen technology being developed and all of this will need to be maintained, inspected and serviced.

“What we are developing is remote technologies where people can inspect and maintain those assets from shore, without putting anyone in harm’s way.”

– Accumulation of micro-organisms –

In May the ROV, which is equipped with sensors and advanced software, conducted what is believed to be the first ever autonomous offshore wind farm inspection.

The device was deployed at French energy firm EDF’s Blyth wind farm, off the coast of Northumberland, northeast England.

It successfully recorded videos that allowed researchers to assess the exterior condition of turbine foundations and cables.

Meanwhile its software created a 3D reconstruction model of parts of the energy company’s underwater assets.

Petillot said the 3D model can pick up the accumulation of micro-organisms, plants and algae on the turbine foundations. 

If a problem is detected, the ROV system can be deployed with a robotic arm to conduct a repair.

“The system will first do an autonomous inspection of the seabed and the structure, and build the 3D model that someone from shore can look at and say, ‘there’s a problem here’,” Petillot said.

“Typically you would have corrosion on the system, you might have to turn a valve, you might have to connect a cable, you might have to change an anode and clean the surface if there is too much bio-fouling.”

Maxime Duchet, an offshore wind research engineer at EDF, said the images and modelling will greatly enhance the ability to conduct operations and maintenance activities on-site.

– ‘Safer and faster’ –

Further tests are needed to estimate the time required to inspect all of the turbine foundations and to demonstrate the full potential of marine robotic technology, he noted.

“However, it is clear from these initial results that the technology can ensure safer and faster operations and a reduced carbon footprint,” Duchet added.

Engineers, who use a joystick to pilot the vehicle, say the ROV can be left alone to perform its primary mapping task for most of the time. 

If it becomes stuck, or lingers too long in a particular area, a pilot can commandeer it. 

Petillot said a long-term benefit could be allowing more people to join the team managing the ROV remotely, who might not have been willing or able to work offshore.

It is incredibly difficult to find a diver or a qualified pilot for such projects, he noted. 

In contrast, finding somebody to help control the system as though they were playing a video game should prove far easier, according to Petillot.

Parts of Australia's beleaguered Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover seen in decades

Parts of Australia’s beleaguered Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover seen in decades, a government report said Thursday, suggesting the aquatic wonder could survive given the chance.

Portions of the vast UNESCO heritage site showed a marked increase in coral cover in the last year, reaching levels not seen in 36 years of monitoring, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. 

Scientists surveying 87 sites said northern and central parts of the reef had bounced back from damage more quickly than some had expected, thanks mainly to fast-growing Acropora — a branching coral that supports thousands of marine species. 

“These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover in periods free of intense disturbances,” said the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s CEO Paul Hardisty.

But far from declaring victory, Hardisty warned the gains could easily be reversed by cyclones, new bleaching events or crown-of-thorns outbreaks. 

He pointed to a reversal in fortunes for the southern portion of the reef, which a year ago had appeared to be on the mend, but was now in decline again.

“This shows how vulnerable the reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer-lasting,” he said.

Coral coverage has increased by 36 percent across sites monitored in the northern part of the reef, up from 27 percent in 2021. 

But the picture was less encouraging as the scientists moved south, with a smaller increase in cover in the reef’s central belt and a marked decrease in coral cover in the south.

The spread of coral-killing crown-of-thorns starfish has also taken a toll.

Only fierce lobbying by the Australian government stopped the reef from being labelled “in danger” by UNESCO — a potentially devastating blow to the country’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry. 

Many fear that the speeding rate of damage could cause the reef to be destroyed entirely. 

Marine scientist Terry Hughes said it was “good news” that coral was regrowing, but warned the species driving the recovery were very vulnerable to ocean heating.

He added that replacing large, old, slow-growing corals that had defined the reef was likely “no longer possible. Instead we’re seeing partial reassembly of fast-growing, weedy corals before the next disturbance.”

Zoe Richards a researcher at the Coral Conservation and Research Group at Curtin University also cautioned against over-optimism.

“This recovery trend is driven by a handful of Acropora species which often grow in a boom-and-bust pattern,” she said. “This means that the next thermal stress event could easily decimate these coral communities once again.”

“We are already finding evidence that each mass bleaching event leads to local extinctions of rarer species, so the short-term success of a handful of fast-growing coral species masks the full story about the largely hidden losses of biodiversity.”

Bridges collapsed and rivers burst their banks as heavy rain lashed northern Japan on Thursday, with 200,000 residents urged to evacuate as authorities warned of dangerous flooding.

TV footage showed a muddy mass of broken trees swept into a mountainous residential area by the downpours, which broke records in some areas.

Two people have been reported missing, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

Authorities have warned of an increased risk of landslides and floods.

Public broadcaster NHK said non-compulsory evacuation advisories were issued to 200,000 residents in five regions: Niigata, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ishikawa and Fukui.

Other TV footage showed homes flooded by an overflowing river and another muddy waterway reaching the height of a bridge.

Some shinkansen bullet trains were suspended in the affected areas.

Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

Strong rain in 2021 triggered a devastating landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed 27 people.

And in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.

Inside an old oak barrel, Ecuadoran bioengineer Javier Carvajal found the fungus of fortune: a 400-year-old yeast specimen that he has since managed to resurrect and use to reproduce what is believed to be Latin America’s oldest beer.

That single-cell microorganism, taken from just a splinter of wood, was the key to recovering the formula for an elixir first brewed in Quito in 1566 by friar Jodoco Ricke, a Franciscan of Flemish origin who historians believe introduced wheat and barley to what is now the Ecuadoran capital.

“Not only have we recovered a biological treasure but also the 400-year-old work of silent domestication of a yeast that probably came from a chicha and that had been collected from the local environment,” Carvajal told AFP.

Chicha is a fermented corn drink brewed by the Indigenous people of the Americas before Spanish colonization.

Carvajal, who already had experience recovering other yeasts, found out about the ancient Franciscan brewery in Quito while reading specialist beer magazines.

It took him a year to do so, but he finally managed to find a barrel from the old brewery in 2008.

It was stored in Quito’s San Francisco Convent, an imposing three-hectare complex built between 1537 and 1680, which is now a museum.

After extracting a splinter, Carvajal used a microscope to find a tiny yeast specimen, which after a long period of cultivation he was able to resurrect.

In his laboratory at the Catholic University of Ecuador, Carvajal takes a small vial containing a variety of the Saccharomyces cerevisiaerescatada yeast.

“It lives here in a little container. It’s very humble, but it is the star” of the laboratory, said the 59-year-old. 

– Filling the holes –

Carvajal, who comes from a brewing family, found an article in an industry magazine that vaguely described the formula for the Franciscans’ 16th century drink.

Little by little, he pieced together bits of information to revive the brew with cinnamon, fig, clove and sugarcane flavors.

“There were a massive number of holes in the recipe and my job was to fill those holes,” said Carvajal.

“It is a work of beer archeology within the microbial archeology” he had to carry out to rescue the yeast, which generates the majority of the drink’s flavor.

After a decade of investigation and testing, Carvajal in 2018 began producing the beer at his home — but the pandemic frustrated his attempts to commercialize it.

He still has not come up with a launch date for his product, nor a price.

Carvajal compares his work, centuries after the Franciscans domesticated the yeast, to intensive care on a molecular scale.

“It is as if they were dormant, like dried seeds but having deteriorated over the years. So you have to reconstruct them, fluidize them, hydrate them and see if their vital signs return.”

Historian Javier Gomezjurado, who wrote a book on Quito beverages, told AFP that the brewery in the San Francisco Convent was the first brewery in hispanic America.

It began operations in 1566, but there were just eight friars in the convent at that time and production was minimal, said Gomezjurado.

With the introduction of machinery into the brewing industry, ancient formulas began to disappear. The brewery closed in 1970.

For Carvajal, resurrecting the yeast and the age-old methods used to make the ancient recipe was simply a labor of love for “the value of the intangible.”

Inside an old oak barrel, Ecuadoran bioengineer Javier Carvajal found the fungus of fortune: a 400-year-old yeast specimen that he has since managed to resurrect and use to reproduce what is believed to be Latin America’s oldest beer.

That single-cell microorganism, taken from just a splinter of wood, was the key to recovering the formula for an elixir first brewed in Quito in 1566 by friar Jodoco Ricke, a Franciscan of Flemish origin who historians believe introduced wheat and barley to what is now the Ecuadoran capital.

“Not only have we recovered a biological treasure but also the 400-year-old work of silent domestication of a yeast that probably came from a chicha and that had been collected from the local environment,” Carvajal told AFP.

Chicha is a fermented corn drink brewed by the Indigenous people of the Americas before Spanish colonization.

Carvajal, who already had experience recovering other yeasts, found out about the ancient Franciscan brewery in Quito while reading specialist beer magazines.

It took him a year to do so, but he finally managed to find a barrel from the old brewery in 2008.

It was stored in Quito’s San Francisco Convent, an imposing three-hectare complex built between 1537 and 1680, which is now a museum.

After extracting a splinter, Carvajal used a microscope to find a tiny yeast specimen, which after a long period of cultivation he was able to resurrect.

In his laboratory at the Catholic University of Ecuador, Carvajal takes a small vial containing a variety of the Saccharomyces cerevisiaerescatada yeast.

“It lives here in a little container. It’s very humble, but it is the star” of the laboratory, said the 59-year-old. 

– Filling the holes –

Carvajal, who comes from a brewing family, found an article in an industry magazine that vaguely described the formula for the Franciscans’ 16th century drink.

Little by little, he pieced together bits of information to revive the brew with cinnamon, fig, clove and sugarcane flavors.

“There were a massive number of holes in the recipe and my job was to fill those holes,” said Carvajal.

“It is a work of beer archeology within the microbial archeology” he had to carry out to rescue the yeast, which generates the majority of the drink’s flavor.

After a decade of investigation and testing, Carvajal in 2018 began producing the beer at his home — but the pandemic frustrated his attempts to commercialize it.

He still has not come up with a launch date for his product, nor a price.

Carvajal compares his work, centuries after the Franciscans domesticated the yeast, to intensive care on a molecular scale.

“It is as if they were dormant, like dried seeds but having deteriorated over the years. So you have to reconstruct them, fluidize them, hydrate them and see if their vital signs return.”

Historian Javier Gomezjurado, who wrote a book on Quito beverages, told AFP that the brewery in the San Francisco Convent was the first brewery in hispanic America.

It began operations in 1566, but there were just eight friars in the convent at that time and production was minimal, said Gomezjurado.

With the introduction of machinery into the brewing industry, ancient formulas began to disappear. The brewery closed in 1970.

For Carvajal, resurrecting the yeast and the age-old methods used to make the ancient recipe was simply a labor of love for “the value of the intangible.”

Every time it rains, Blanca Arias in El Salvador and Sandra Ramos in Honduras fear that flooding will raze their precarious homes and leave their families destitute. Again.

It is a fate that strikes all too often in parts of Central America and, experts say, ever more frequently and severely due to climate change.

Corruption, crumbling infrastructure, uncontrolled urbanization and poverty  — which afflicts 60 percent of Central America’s 50 million inhabitants — all combine to leave more and more people exposed to natural disasters.

And the region has many: from volcanic eruptions, drought and heat waves to regular flooding brought on by tropical storms and hurricanes.

In July this year, Tropical Storm Bonnie unleashed a downpour on San Salvador, flooding Arias’s humble dwelling and many others built in a ravine in the capital’s southeast.

Her house was left “in ruins,” Arias told AFP, and she lost everything she needs for her artisanal ice cream business.

“We have nowhere to go,” the 58-year-old said.

In neighboring Honduras, 22-year-old Ramos lives in a state of constant nervousness on the banks of the Ulua River.

“A little while ago, a fortnight ago, we were scared because they announced a very strong hurricane. We went to look at the river, the river filled up … some of it drained into the valley.

“All of this alarms us, because we are in a risk zone and we cannot be at ease,” she said.

– Vicious cycle –

When both Hurricane Eta and Iota hit in October 2020, Ramos said her entire settlement became flooded.

“All the houses were lost, we lost everything.”

The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean estimates that the hurricane duo caused damage exceeding $2 billion in Honduras alone.

In 2021, according to a World Food Programme report, more than 8.4 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua were in a food “crisis” due to conflict, economic shocks resulting from the coronavirus epidemic, and extreme weather events.

It is a vicious cycle.

“Poverty makes the same people look for the cheapest areas to live in and those are usually the most vulnerable zones,” Ricardo Navarro, president of the CESTA environmental NGO told AFP. 

The areas of Central America most exposed to tropical cyclones are on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, both stretching almost 3,000 kilometers (some 1,800 miles) in length, and heavily populated.

Experts regularly warn of the danger of high-density settlements in high-risk areas.

In some areas of Nicaragua, for example, “there was a time when rivers shrunk and people built (homes) in their beds or very close to the rivers which, of course, returned to their normal flow,” said Janett Castillo, of the Nicaraguan National Risk Management Board (MNGR).

“Nature reclaims the space that humans invade,” added Magdalena Cortez of the Salvadoran risk-management NGO MPGR, who said that to minimize risk, “we must respect nature.”

Despite the many disasters afflicting the region, “civil protection systems have been weakened” by government neglect, said Guido Calderon of the Cociger risk management NGO in Guatemala.

Every time there is an event, the systems mobilize for a rapid response, “and then leave those affected abandoned,” he said.

– ‘Uncontrolled exploitation’ –

Back in Honduras, Jose Ramon Avila of the NGO coalition ASONOG said the vulnerability exposed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 — which was the country’s worst-ever natural disaster with more than 5,000 deaths — has only become worse with “uncontrolled exploitation of forests” ever since.

Flooding has worsened due to a changing climate, said Avila, with “abundant rainfall in shorter periods, which in turn saturates the soil” that would normally absorb the excess water.

According to a 2021 report of the Inter-American Development Bank, a total of 81 weather disasters killed 26,887 people in Honduras between 1970 and 2019.

In some areas, the country has sought to deal with the threat by building stone-and-soil dikes.

But when Hurricane Eta hit, even those barriers were overwhelmed, remembered Ramos. 

After the water receded, she and her neighbors returned and settled in makeshift huts, slowly rebuilding their lives, but with no faith left in the dikes. 

Now, every time a storm is forecast, they get ready to leave.

“We can lose the little we have collected — the animals, even our lives,” Ramos said.

As much of Europe bakes in a third heatwave since June, fears are growing that extreme drought driven by climate change in the continent’s breadbasket nations will dent stable crop yields and deepen the cost-of-living crisis. 

The European Commission on Wednesday urged EU member states to re-use treated urban wastewater as irrigation on the continent’s parched farms, after France and parts of England saw their driest July on record.

In France, where an intense drought has hammered farmers and prompted widespread limits on freshwater use, there was just 9.7 millimetres (0.38 inches) of rain last month, Meteo-France said.

That was 84 percent down on the average levels seen for July between 1991 and 2022, making it the driest month since March 1961, the agency added.

The southwestern region of Gironde, already devastated by last month’s wildfires, saw a maximum temperature of 39.6 degrees Celsius (103 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, with Meteo-France predicting a peak on Thursday.

Animals, including lions and monkeys, evacuated two weeks ago due to the blazes there returned to their zoo on Wednesday.

Farmers nationwide are reporting difficulties in feeding livestock because of parched grasslands, while irrigation has been banned in large areas of the northwest and southeast due to freshwater shortages.

Environment Minister Christophe Bechu said July’s rainfall represented “just 12 percent of what’s needed”. 

France is the fourth-largest exporter of wheat and among the top five exporters of maize globally. Poor harvests due to drought may heap further pressure on grain supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused global shockwaves. 

“Our food system has been under stress for a while, and with the supply issues from Ukraine, that has only gotten worse,” said Shouro Dasgupta, environmental economist at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change.

“These heatwaves are on top of droughts and will see crops wither faster.”

Dasgupta said that extreme heat driven by climate change is also contributing to food price inflation for consumers and harsher conditions for producers. 

“Droughts and heatwaves impact people’s livelihoods. People will be less able to afford food,” he told AFP. 

“And during heatwaves outdoor workers are only able to work fewer hours, which brings cascading impacts for supply.”

– ‘Food systems not working’ –

Britain’s Met Office this week said much of southern and eastern England had their driest July on record. 

Some water providers have already announced restrictions affecting millions of people, and fruit and vegetable producers have announced several crop losses such as beans and berries.

Britain’s inflation surged to a 40-year high in June on rising fuel and food prices.

Elizabeth Robinson, director of the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said spiralling food costs — worsened by heat-induced losses in Europe and Britain — were a sign that “food systems aren’t working for people.”

“There are some long-term, difficult conversations that need to be had, particularly about food waste and the diversion of grains away from food for people to feed animals,” she told AFP.

In Spain, already parched under a prolonged hot spell, temperatures will breach 40C in several areas this week. 

The heat is worsening water shortages that have dogged Spanish agriculture since last winter, with local restrictions on water usage in the most affected regions. 

The government said this week that Spain’s reservoirs are at just 40.4 percent capacity.

Juan Carlos Hervas, from the COAG farmers’ union, told AFP that Spain’s olive harvest from unirrigated land will come in at less than 20 percent of the average of the last five years. 

Spain supplies nearly half the world’s olive oil.  

– ‘Worst drought this century’ –

Portugal, where temperatures yet again breached the 40C mark this week, is experiencing “the worst drought this century”, Environment Minister Jose Duarte Cordeiro warned last month.

Portugal along with Poland has asked its citizens to cut down on water use to ease the pressure.

“Water authorities across Europe are unprepared for what scientists have been saying for three decades,” said Dasgupta.

The European Commission in an updated assessment last month found that nearly half — 44 percent — of the EU and Britain was currently experiencing “warning” levels of drought. 

It warned that exceptionally low soil moisture levels meant several countries, including France, Romania, Spain, Portugal and Italy will experience reduced crop yield in 2022. 

“The unfavourable forecasts for the coming months may compromise the water supply and will likely keep the competition for this resource high,” it said. 

A separate EU bulletin, also last month, said that EU yields of soybean, sunflowers and maize were already 9 percent below average. 

On Wednesday Virginijus Sinkevicius, EU commissioner for the environment, fisheries and the oceans, urged EU nations to re-use more of its wastewater.

“We need to stop wasting water and use this resource more efficiently to adapt to the changing climate and ensure the security and sustainability of our agricultural supply,” he said.

A volcano erupted in Iceland on Wednesday near the capital Reykjavik, spewing red hot lava and plumes of smoke out of a fissure in an uninhabited valley after several days of intense seismic activity.

The eruption was around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Reykjavik, near the site of the Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwestern Iceland that erupted for six months in March-September 2021, mesmerising tourists and spectators who flocked to the scene.

On Wednesday, a strip of glowing red lava could be seen gushing from the ground, spouting 20-30 metres (65-100 feet) into the air before spreading into a blanket of smouldering black rock.

As it cooled, blueish smoke rose up from the hilly landscape on the Reykjanes peninsula. 

About 100 curious onlookers quickly made their way to the scene, bewitched by the sight of the bubbling lava and the intense roar that could be heard rising up from the ground as the lava erupted, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), which monitors seismic activity, estimated the size of the fissure at about 300 metres. It said the eruption started in the Meradalir valley, less than one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the scene of last year’s eruption.

Wednesday’s eruption came after a period of intense seismic activity, with about 10,000 earthquakes detected since Saturday, including two with a magnitude of at least 5.0.

While there was no ash plume, the IMO said it was “possible that pollution can be detected due to the gas release”.

Gases from a volcanic eruption — especially sulphur dioxide — can be elevated in the immediate vicinity, and may pose a danger to health and even be fatal.

Gas pollution can also be carried by the wind.

“Risk to populated areas and critical infrastructure is considered very low and there have been no disruptions to flights”, the Icelandic foreign ministry said on Twitter.

More than an hour after the start of the eruption, a commercial passenger jet could be seen flying over the eruption site at low altitude heading for Reykjavik’s main airport Keflavik.

– Tourist magnet –

Last year’s eruption saw more than 140 million cubic metres of magma spilled into the area over a period of six months before it was officially declared over after nine months, in December 2021.

Relatively easy to access, the site became a major tourist attraction, drawing more than 430,000 visitors, according to the most recent figures from the Icelandic Tourist Board.

Wednesday’s eruption was believed to be five to 10 times bigger than last year’s eruption, with about 20-50 cubic metres of magma spewing out per second, Magnus Tuma Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, told Icelandic media.

On Wednesday, rescue teams and police rushed to the scene to assess the danger and possible gas contamination, and discouraged people from visiting.

Iceland President Gudni Johannesson, who happened to be driving near the scene of Wednesday’s eruption when it occurred, echoed that appeal.

“I just want people to be careful and know more before they go there into the unknown. If this eruption will be anything like the last one, there will be enough time, so there is no need to rush,” he told the English-language media Iceland Monitor.

– Awakening –

Mount Fagradalsfjall belongs to the Krysuvik volcanic system on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland.

Known as the land of fire and ice, Iceland has 32 volcanic systems currently considered active, the highest number in Europe. The country has had an eruption every five years on average.

Wednesday’s eruption was the country’s seventh in 21 years.

However, until last year, the Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption since the 13th century, when a volcano erupted for 30 years from 1210-1240.

Geophysicists have said that the 2021 eruption could signal the beginning of a new period of eruptions lasting centuries.

A vast island near the Arctic Circle, Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack on the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

The shifting of these plates is in part responsible for Iceland’s intense volcanic activity.