An eruption began on the Sundhnúkur crater row on the Reykjanes Peninsula shortly before 4:00 this morning, reports RÚV. The eruption is not considered to pose a threat to Grindavík or local infrastructure.
The eruption followed an earthquake swarm and magma intrusion that began shortly before midnight, prompting the activation of the Civil Protection Coordination Centre. The eruption site is just northeast of Stóra-Skógfell. According to Minney Sigurðardóttir, a natural hazards specialist at the Icelandic Met Office, the location is favourable as it does not threaten infrastructure and is far from the town of Grindavík. The only infrastructure potentially at risk is the Grindavíkurvegur road near Stóra-Skógfell; however, the eruption would need to continue for quite some time for lava to reach it.
Evacuations of Grindavík town, the Grindavík campsite, and the Blue Lagoon began around 2:00 and were completed within about an hour.
Recently, around 40 to 50 houses in Grindavík have been occupied overnight, and it is believed that a similar number of residents were present last night. Approximately 20 to 30 people were at the campsite when evacuation began, along with about 200 guests at the Blue Lagoon.
Air pollution
Gas pollution is drifting northwest from the eruption site towards Vogar and Reykjanesbraut. Residents in Vogar and Reykjanesbær are advised to close their windows and monitor air quality regularly at loftgaedi.is and vedur.is, where pollution forecasts are also available.
The fissure is estimated to be between 700 and 1,000 metres long and does not appear to be lengthening. Lava flow is primarily directed to the southeast.
According to GPS measurements and deformation data, the eruption is likely to be relatively small. Given the fissure’s location and the eruption’s scale, lava is not expected to reach Grindavík. Monitoring continues to assess whether lava could approach Grindavíkurvegur north of Stóra-Skógfell.
In an interview with RÚV shortly before the eruption began, Benedikt Ófeigsson, geophysicist and head of deformation measurements at the Icelandic Met Office, noted that the magma intrusion was occurring in roughly the same area as previous intrusions. The earthquake swarm last night was located between Stóra-Skógfell and Sýlingarfell.
This is the second eruption in 2025 and the ninth to take place along the Sundhnúkur crater row since December 2023.
The accompanying photo was taken in January 2024, during a previous eruption north of Grindavík.
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