Watch: Volcano Erupts In Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula, Sixth Since December

A new volcano erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Thursday, spewing hot lava into the air in the sixth eruption to hit the region since December, authorities said. Live video images showed orange lava bursting out of a long fissure, illuminating the billowing smoke rising up into the night sky.

"An eruption has started on the Sundhnuksgigarod," the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a statement, adding that the eruption had started at 9:26 pm (2126 GMT) following a series of earthquakes. The IMO said it had not yet been able to assess the length of the fissure.

This is the sixth eruption to hit the area since December, coming just two months after the end of a previous eruption that lasted more than three weeks. Icelandic media reported that the nearby fishing village of Grindavik was being evacuated, as it had been for previous eruptions, though it was not known how many people were in the area.

The Reykjanes peninsula had not experienced an eruption for eight centuries until a March 2021 eruption. Further eruptions occurred in August 2022 and in July and December 2023, leading volcanologists to warn a new era of seismic activity had begun in the region. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.

It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.