Hundreds of people in Iceland evacuated amid fears of second volcanic eruption

Iceland evacuates hundreds near volcano

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Icelandic emergency officials evacuated hundreds of people near a restless volcano Wednesday amid strong signs of a second eruption.

Some 800 people near the Eyjafjallajokull (AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) glacier were evacuated after seismic activity suggested a second eruption, said Rognvaldur Olafsson, a chief inspector for the Icelandic Civil Protection Agency. The volcano, 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Reykjavik, erupted March 20 after almost 200 years of silence.

“The volcano in question is under a glacier,” Olafsson said. “If an eruption happens, there could be flash floods.”

Heavy cloud cover was preventing scientists from flying over the glacier, but a Coast Guard plane was due to fly over the area later Wednesday.

The agency said two commercial aircraft had reported seeing steam plumes rising from the glacier.

Gunnar Gudmunsson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said there had been a series of tremors overnight, and rivers in the area were rising — strong evidence of a new eruption under the ice cap.

“Most probably this eruption is taking place at the summit … under the ice,” he said.

He said the new eruption appears to be about eight or nine kilometers (five to six miles) west of the original fissure.

Last month’s eruption struck near the glacier in an area that had no ice. An eruption below the ice could lead to widespread flooding.

The area is sparsely populated and Gudmunsson said no one was in danger.

Residents were evacuated to a Red Cross center in the nearby community of Hvolsvollur, although farmers were later allowed to return to tend to livestock, the protection agency said.

Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic’s mid-oceanic ridge. Volcanic eruptions are often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth’s plates move and when magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface.