An Inverness man captured an incredible picture of the moment the “whole sky lit up red” as a volcano erupted near Reykjavik.
A gash two miles long has opened up on the Reykjanes peninsula, spewing between 100 and 200 cubic metres of lava every second.
Hamish Moir, 54, was sitting down to a meal with some friends on Monday when one of the group got an alert on their phone that an eruption had broken out.
Hamish works for an environmental engineering company and frequently travels to Iceland for work.
He was last in the country in November when there had been a build-up in seismic activity which led to the town of Grindavík be evacuated.
Hamish said: “There was no real warnings, nothing really happening – no seismic activity until the last few hours.
“Then around quarter past ten the eruption started.”
The group finished their meal and drove to the shoreline for a better view.
He said: “We looked over to where the volcano was. It was quite a cloudy night and the whole sky was lit up red from the lava fountains.
“The sky was red – you could see the plume of smoke and if you looked closely, even though we were 25 or 30km away you could actually see the fountains of lava.”
Dramatic scenes, but no disruption caused by volcano eruption in Iceland
Hamish was also in the country for the last eruption on July 10, but said this more recent one was bigger.
While the scene was dramatic, he said the locals were calm.
“There were no disruptions to flights or roads. It was surprising how little disruption there was,” he said.
“It’s not the sort of eruption that’s dangerous. It’s not the same sort there was in 2010, it wasn’t explosive. It was just like lava fountains.”
Hamish flew back to Edinburgh Airport the next day.
He said: “I was a little worried I was going to get stranded. Though there would be worse things than being stuck in Iceland for Christmas.”
On Monday night, the Icelandic Met Office said: “An eruption has started north of Grindavík. It can be seen on webcams and seems to be located close to Hagafell, about 3km north of Grindavík.
“The eruption began at 22.17 following the earthquake swarm that started around 21. A Coast Guard helicopter will take off shortly to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption.”
On Wednesday, the Iceland weather agency said the strength of the eruption was diminishing.
Conversation