On December 18, 2023, a volcano erupted in Grindavik, Iceland, in southwestern Iceland, sending a flash of light into the evening sky, spraying half-molten rock into the air.
The Icelandic Meteorological Service said the eruption appeared to have occurred about 4 kilometers from the town of Grindavik. In November, the town near Iceland's main airport was evacuated as strong seismic activity damaged homes and raised fears of an imminent eruption of the volcano.
Iceland is located on top of a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic Ocean, which erupts on average every four to five years. The most recent and most devastating was the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, which spewed a huge ash cloud into the atmosphere, causing a massive closure of airspace over Europe.
However, the eruption of the Reykjanes Peninsula, located about 50 kilometers southwest of the capital, Reykjavík, is not expected to release ash into the air. Iceland's Foreign Minister Bjarn Benedikson said on social media that flights to and from Iceland were not interrupted and that the international flight corridor remained open.
