The recent eruption of Svartsengi on the Reykjanes peninsula shocked residents of Grindavk, Iceland

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the eruption began just before 8:00 a.m. local time Sunday about a half mile from the town of Grindavík after a series of intense earthquakes.

The government said Monday that the eruption is not expected to reach other populated areas.

In the last weeks, defensive walls were built around the volcano to keep the lava away from the community. But the walls of the barriers built north of Grindavik have been breached and lava is moving toward the community, the meteorological office said.

“This continues to surprise us,” Benedikt Ófeigsson of the meteorological office told RUV. “Things were slowing down after the eruption started, but about half an hour or an hour ago they started to pick up speed again. We are no longer seeing a slowdown in the town.”

The most disruptive volcanic activity in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which disrupted air travel for months.

But Sunday’s eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula isn’t expected to release large amounts of ash into the air. Isavia’s press officer said operations at Keflavk are continuing as normal.

Before last month’s eruption, the area known broadly as Svartsengi volcano had been dormant for around 780 years. The volcano is just a few kilometers west of Fagradalsfjall, which was dormant for 6,000 years before flaring to life in March 2021. The last eruption was more powerful than recent ones.

The president said on Sunday that a “daunting period of upheaval” had begun for those in the Reykjanes peninsula.

No flights or infrastructure threats have been reported so far. At least three homes have either burned down or been overtaken by lava, according to the Icelandic broadcaster RUV.

Lvk Ptursson, 50, and his family: A message to the family of a boy who died in an earthquake last month

Jhannesson offered his sympathy to the family of Lvk Pétursson, who went missing in a work accident last week.

According to Sky News, the 50-year-old Pétursson was filling crevasses formed by volcanic activity and earthquakes when he fell in a crack that had opened after last month’s eruption.

There are 32 volcanoes in Iceland, which is a hot spot for seismic activity. A volcano erupts roughly every five years in the country, though eruptions have occurred more frequently recently.