Iceland Evacuates Town Over Concerns of Volcanic Eruption

Smoke billows and lava spurts after the eruption of a volcano, on the Reykjanes peninsula, near the capital Reykjavik, in southwest Iceland, on July 10, 2023. Juergen Merz/Glacier Photo Artist via Reuters

COPENHAGEN—Icelandic authorities have completed the evacuation of 3,000 residents of a town in the southwest of the island over concerns of a volcanic eruption after a series of earthquakes and evidence of magma spreading underground.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday there was a “considerable” risk of an eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula because the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving.