Active volcanoes

Photo: ALMANNAVARNADEILD / HANDOUT (Getty Images)This view offers a unique vantage point of the lava flows. On one side, the lava is more diffuse, and on the other side of the eruption, the molten rock forms fewer, but thicker, bands across the landscape. Photo: ALMANNAVARNADEILD / HANDOUT (Getty Images)This view offers a unique vantage point of the lava flows. On one side, the lava is more diffuse, and on the other side of the eruption, the molten rock forms fewer, but thicker, bands across the landscape. FOLLOW US…

Lava flows across snow-covered ground in southwestern Iceland.Photo: Marco Di Marco (AP)Southwestern Iceland has been a world transformed over the last few months, as initial tremors gave way to a full-throated volcanic eruption. The fishing village of Grindavík was evacuated in November, along with popular tourist destinations like the country’s Blue Lagoon, as residents held their breath for a potential eruption.And lo, a little later than expected, in December 2023, a large crack in the ground made by the initial…

Smoke billows from a crevasse near Grindavík, Iceland.Photo: KRISTIN ELISABET GUNNARSDOTTIR/AFP (Getty Images)A trepidatious Iceland has waited for this moment for over a month: a large crack in the ground has started to spew up lava. In mid-November, hundreds of tremors—earthquakes that portended the eruptions to come—forced the evacuation of the nearby Icelandic village of Grindavík and at least one famous tourist destination: Iceland’s Blue Lagoon.The volcano finally erupted Monday night, at 10:17 p.m. local time. The…

There is a “significant likelihood” that the Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall will erupt “in the coming days,” according to the country’s meteorological office. The volcanic activity is primarily occurring in the island’s southwest, northeast of the fishing town of Grindavík.Iceland’s Hottest Tourist DestinationAbout 900 earthquakes have been detected in the volcano’s southwestern region since midnight local time, according to an Icelandic Meteorological Office release. The tremors were detected as deep as 3.1 miles (5…

A tourist visits Fagradalsfjall on August 4.Image: Jeremie Richard (Getty Images)A volcano in Iceland has been spewinglava for the past few days, and as spectators angled their phones for the perfect shot, three tourists have been injured in an attempt to visit.Fagradalsfjall is a volcano in Iceland that is currently erupting approximately 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of the country’s capital, Reykjavik. Eruptions in Iceland are not uncommon, given the country’s geology, and as Fagradalsfjall began erupting on…

The volcano, named Fagradalsfjall, erupted 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Reykjavik. Image: Marco Di Marco (AP)The Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall, located near the country’s capital Reykjavik and its airport Keflavik, has travelers both worried and in awe as the hotspot spews lava into the surrounding areas.In the midst of flight cancellations and lost luggage, the last thing you think might threaten your travels is a volcanic eruption sending hot magma to the surface and clouds of gas into the atmosphere. But…

A presumed-extinct giant tortoise of the Galápagos Islands was found alive in 2019, and a new DNA study confirms the female tortoise is the same species as an animal collected over a century ago. “Fernanda,” as she’s called, is the only living Fernandina Island tortoise (Chelonoidis phantastica) known and just the second member of the species ever recorded.The Galápagos Archipelago—the cradle and testing ground for Darwin’s theory of natural selection—is bedazzled with giant tortoises, some of which have gone extinct…