Homes in a fishing village are destroyed by lava during an Icelandic volcanic eruption in 2024.

BY NBC NEWS

Iceland’s president said the nation is confronting “tremendous forces of nature” after molten lava from a volcano in the island’s southwest burned numerous buildings in the evacuated town of Grindavik.

A long-dormant volcanic system has awoken on the Reykjanes peninsula, causing “a daunting period of upheaval to begin,” according to President Gudni Th. Johannesson in a late-Sunday broadcast speech.

On Sunday morning, a lava volcano on the peninsula erupted for the second time in less than a month. Hours before, a series of little tremors signaled an impending eruption, prompting authorities to advise the town’s people to evacuate Grindavik and take shelter elsewhere.

The eruption had “decreased considerably” over night, according to geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, but it was difficult to predict when it would stop.

lava About 30 miles southwest of Reykjavik, the capital, Grindavik is home to 3,800 people. It was previously displaced in November when the Svartsengi volcano system erupted after almost 800 years.

Finally, on December 18, the volcano erupted, causing lava to flow out of Grindavik. On December 22, the occupants were permitted to go back to their houses.

Since then, lava emergency personnel have been erecting protective barriers, which have mostly prevented the town from being affected by the latest eruption’s lava flow.

Although no one has died as a result of the eruptions, a workman is believed to have fallen into a fissure that the volcano has opened.

The president said, “We need to act on the information we have, even though we are unsure of how this eruption will play out.”

“In spite of these amazing forces of nature, we still hope for the best outcome possible,” he said. “We will continue to stand together and fulfill our responsibilities.”

Icelandic lava experiences one eruption on average every four to five years since it is situated over a volcanic hot zone in the North Atlantic. The 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which sent clouds of ash into the sky and caused months-long disruptions to transatlantic air traffic, was the most disruptive in recent memory.

It is not anticipated that the most recent eruption would spew much ash into the sky. Operations at Keflavík Airport are proceeding as usual, said Gudjon Helgason, spokeswoman for airport operator Isavia.