Volcano begins erupting in Iceland near international airport  – National | Globalnews.ca

A volcano in southwest Iceland began erupting Wednesday, the country’s meteorological authorities said.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the eruption is near the Fagradalsfjall mountain, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. A live video feed from the site shows molten lava spewing from a narrow fissure.

The eruption follows days of small earthquakes in the area and is close to Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s international air traffic hub.

An eruption in the same area last year – the first on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula in almost 800 years -produced spectacular lava flows for several months.

Iceland, located above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, averages an eruption every four to five years.

The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which sent clouds of ash and dust into the atmosphere, interrupting air travel for days between Europe and North America because of concerns the ash could damage jet engines. More than 100,000 flights were grounded, stranding millions of passengers.