Volcano erupts on Iceland: Tourists evacuated from popular holiday spot as ‘red alert’ is issued

Magma erupted from Iceland’s Sunddhnúksgígar volcano today, forcing tourists out from a popular holiday spot as a ‘red alert’ was issued.

Benedikt Ófeigsson, director of deformation measurements, said that signs of eruption had been recorded after seismic activity began underground.

Efforts are now underway to evacuate Grindavík, with the magma yet to reach the surface, Visir reports.

The five-star Blue Lagoon hotel was evacuated and all guests moved to other hotels as the magma eruption began early this morning.

Helga Árnadóttir, a hotel manager, said that guests had to be woken up this morning as soon as it became apparent a magma shower had begun, adding that the evacuation went successfully.

The West Coast Weather Bureau reported a ‘red alert’ just before 6am local time, prompting a hurried reaction from local authorities. 

The Icelandic Meteorological Office reported that pressure measurements in boreholes showed clear changes, indicating magma flow and a likely eruption to follow.

The Icelandic Met Office reported that week that an eruption at the Sundhnúkur crater row ‘remains likely’, citing accumulating magma accumulation.

‘The most likely scenario is that this period of magma buildup will end with a magma intrusion and/or an eruption, likely emerging first in the area between Sundhnúkur and Stóra-Skógfell,’ it reported on March 25. 

Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula was devastated by a series of major eruptions between December 2023 and December 2024, following intense quakes in November 2023.

File photo. A volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024

File photo. The skyline of Reykjavik against the backdrop of orange coloured sky due to molten lava flowing out from a fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula, on March 16, 2024