To Iceland, where thousands of people were evacuated after a
massive volcanic eruption following weeks of earthquakes.
Marcus Moore is in Iceland with the latest.
Good morning, Marcus.
Well, Michael, good morning. I want you to see the
volcano off in the distance there you can see that
orange glow and that lava spewing into the.
There's also gases rising into the sky.
We're obviously in a safe spot to show you what's
been happening here.
For weeks. Officials have been warning about the potential for
this eruption.
They even evacuated an entire town.
This morning, there's an urgent effort to protect the nearby
power plant.
Overnight, an Icelandic eruption is finally erupted after weeks of
warning the volcano in southwest Iceland exploding,
turning the sky bright orange.
The glow from lava visible for miles even from the
center of the capital Reykjavik,
and not far from a power plant,
watches fiery fountains of lava flow high in the sky,
magma or semi molten rock spewing along the Ridge of
a hill and across the volcanic hotspot.
They tend to be gas rich and that causes them
to shoot way up in the atmosphere and get a
spectacular fire fountains.
Thick smoke seen wafting skyward.
These photos show the Earth's crust cracking open,
exposing the glowing red ash,
rocks and dangerous volcanic matter below.
Just last month, numerous cracks opening up in roads,
steam pouring out of the ground as seismic activity intensified
in the southwestern part of the country.
The eruption occurring on Iceland's Reikianis peninsula,
less than two miles from the town of Grindovic,
which is about 1/2 hour drive from the country's main
airport and just 10 minutes from the famous Blue Lagoon,
one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions.
Local authorities on high alert evacuating nearly 4000 residents of
the small fishing town amid fears of a significant outbreak,
is bigger than expected. While no flights have been cancelled
yet,
holiday travelers fear widespread disruptions because of previous volcanic eruptions
like this one back in 2010,
which crippled air travel for days.
And we are still watching that lock on the horizon
there.
And according to officials overnight it did.
It does appear that the intensity of this eruption has
decreased a bit,
but they're still not out of the woods.
Coast Guard has been flying helicopters over the region to
assess the situation and this is already one of the
largest eruptions to hit this region in several years with
one of the fishers or cracks in.
The ground is about 2 1/2 miles long with lava
spewing out of it in every direction.
Truly incredible images, as we saw in Hawaii too.
There's no telling how long this can last too,
so we'll stay on top of it.
Marcus. Thank you.