Erupting Volcano in Iceland Ignites ‘Continuous Curtain of Fire.’ Iconic Blue Lagoon and Town of Grindavík Evacuated

Guests enjoying the waters of the Blue Lagoon. The water’s milky blue hue is due to its high silica content.
A series of volcanic eruptions in Iceland caused the evacuation of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa as the volcano began to spew lava in the direction of the nearby seaside town of Grindavik.
“An eruption has started near Sundhnukagigar, north of Grindavik,” the Veðurstofa Íslands, or Icelandic Meteorological Office, said in a statement. “The eruption cloud reached an altitude of about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) at the beginning.”
The town as well as the Blue Lagoon spa were both evacuated.
This is the fifth volcano eruption in Iceland since December.
“It’s a continuous curtain of fire,” the Nordic Volcanological Centre’s Rikke Pedersen told reporters, noting that “[W]e’re only observing the initial phase by now.”
The renowned geothermal spa, located on the Blue Lagoon, Norðurljósavegur, in a lava field near Grindavík and in front of Mount Þorbjörn, has seen a series of closures in recent months amidst a wave of seismic activity that continues to affect the country.
The Blue Lagoon’s website posted a notice stating: “Due to a volcanic eruption in the area, Blue Lagoon is temporarily closed.” The geothermal spa receives 700,000 visitors each year.
Benedikt Ofeigsson, a volcanologist, told Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV the fissure was growing and was more than 1.55 miles (2.5 kilometers) long an hour after the eruption began.
The few remaining residents Grindavik were evacuated, but many had left permanently after the recent previous eruptions.
News of each occurrence gives this publication the opportunity to use letters from the Old English and Old Norse alphabet that continue to exist in Modern Icelandic including the þorn (uppercase Þ; lowercased þ)  and the eð (uppercase Ð; lowercase ð). In Old English, the letter þ and the letter ð were used interchangeable to represent the dental fricative phoneme now represented by “th.”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)