A parking lot near Iceland’s biggest tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon geothermal springs, was flooded by lava from a nearby volcano on Thursday. They evacuated the spa earlier. TASR reports according to the AFP agency and the Iceland Monitor portal.
You can see how in the published images the lava engulfed a large part of the parking lot with a capacity for 350 cars. The lava also hit the service building, which was used to store visitors’ luggage. However, the pools with thermal water are not at risk, as the lava has been contained by a protective wall.
The head of the commercial department of Blue Lagoon, Helga Arnadottirová, told the daily Morgunbladid that it is not yet possible to say when the pools will be reopened to visitors. They are currently evaluating the situation.
The nearby fishing village of Grindavík with 4,000 inhabitants and the premises of the Blue Lagoon were evacuated on Wednesday evening after the eruption of the Sundhnúksgígar volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula. This eruption is the seventh since December 2023. The March 2021 volcanic eruption was the first on the Reykjanes Peninsula in 800 years. More appeared in August 2022, July and December 2023.
There are 33 active volcanic systems in Iceland, the most in Europe. added AFP. The island of Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic ridge – an undersea mountain range that arose on the border of the Eurasian and North American continental plates.
