From People Playing Volleyball To Clicking Selfies, Volcano Eruption Sees Tourist Explosion In Iceland

Thousands of people have flocked to the area in recent days, some 30 kilometers southwest of the capital and main gateway to Iceland - Reykjavik - to watch the spectacle of tons of orange lava pouring out of the ground.?

Since the initial eruption, almost two weeks ago, lava has flowed out of the ground at a rate of 10 cubic meters per second.?

Thordarson draws a parallel between this eruption and that of the Hawaiian volcano of Pu'u 'O'o ,which began in 1983 and erupted for 35 years.

Hikers walking along in the Geldingadalur valley are wearing head lights as they make their way to and from the site of an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland.

Iceland became the first country in the Schengen area in the middle of the month to open its limping tourism sector to visitors who can prove they have been vaccinated. In the picture, hikers photograph each other on the site of an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland.

The island was thus ahead of the European Union, which hopes to have a health passport ready by summer that allows people who have already received the complete guideline to move freely. In the picture, hikers crowd the site of an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland.

Tourism is one of the main sectors of the Iceland economy: in 2019, the year immediately before the pandemic, it represented 8.1% of productive activity.

Almost two million people visited the island that year, with only 365,000 inhabitants.

In the four weeks prior to the eruption, on March 19, more than 40,000 earthquakes of varying degrees shook the Reykjanes peninsula, between 30 and 40 times more than in any other year.