(screen capture video from the Driffellshraun web camera)
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A basaltic fissure eruption commenced in the late afternoon, local time, on 10 July 2023, next to a hill called Litli Hrútur in southwestern Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula. This followed a week of high seismic activity, with well over 7,000 earthquakes reported.
Update: the eruption ceased in early August 2023.
Iceland is a volcanic island in the North Atlantic Ocean between Britain and Greenland. It is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, along which the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate separate and new oceanic crust forms. Seismicity in the area is due to subsurface magma movement from hotspot (mantle plume) activity, as well as seafloor spreading (= tectonic divergence). Magma reaching the surface results in volcanic eruptions. Some famous eruptions in Iceland include Laki (1783), Surtsey (1963-1967), Eldfell (1973), Hekla (1991, 2000), Eyjafjallajökull (2010), and Grimsvötn (2011).
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