Important Takeaways:

• Magma erupted from craters around Iceland’s Blue Lagoon resort on Tuesday morning, forcing its evacuation and those of settlements nearby, after the volcanic island’s seismologists recorded an “earthquake swarm” earlier in the day.
• The community, located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, was largely evacuated a year ago when the volcano came to life after lying dormant for 800 years.
• “The fissure is now about 500 meters (547 yards) long and has reached through the protective barrier north of Grindavík,” Iceland’s Met Office said in a statement. “The fissure continues to grow, and it cannot be ruled out that it may continue to open further south.”
• The earthquake swarm began at 6:30 a.m. local time on the Sundhnúks Crater Row, Iceland’s Meteorological Office said.
• “The swarm is between Sýlingarfell and Stóra-Skógfell, in a similar area seen prior to previous eruptions,” the office said, adding that it was “followed by a clear change in deformation and pressure changes in boreholes.”
• “Both independent measurements were a clear sign of the onset of a magma intrusion,” the office said.
• Jóhanna Malen Skúladóttir, a natural hazards specialist at Iceland’s Meteorological Office, told Visir they were monitoring the situation and it “looks like an eruption is starting.”
• “A lot of magma has accumulated in the magma chamber and there is, for example, more seismic activity now than before the last eruption. It could be that she is trying to find a new place to come up,” Skúladóttir told the publication.
• Iceland’s Meteorological Office had warned in the morning: “No magma has reached the surface as of now, but an eruption is likely to occur.”

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