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Iceland volcano eruption raises contamination fears, medical spa left

A volcano spewed lava and smoke over southwestern Iceland for a 2nd day on Friday raising worries of spreading out contamination hours after its eruption required the evacuation of a medical spa resort.

Fountains of glowing molten rock shot into the night sky when the volcano first appeared on the Reykjanes peninsula on Thursday.

The flow from the volcano has since slowed, Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Centre, said. We have a rather intense fountaining and high output in the beginning and it quickly declines, but that does not inform us anything about how long it will last.

The meteorological office cautioned that wind could carry gas pollution from the eruption towards the south and southeast.

The neighboring Blue Lagoon health club, which has big outside swimming pools heated up by geothermal energy, was evacuated late on Thursday and said it remained closed on Friday.

We simply went there as travelers trying to find a great day, said realty broker Dennis Murphy, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who existed with his child.

The next thing you know, the ground is exploding ideal next to us, the 53-year-old stated. They watched the sky turn red as they were being evacuated.

There was definitely a sense of urgency as we were trying to leave there. The staff was tossing all of our valuables into our bag and just saying, you got to get out of here, he included.

Around 1,300 guests and staff were at the day spa, Icelandic daily Morgunbladid reported.

Lava at first drained of the volcano at a rate of up to 2,000 cubic metres (70,600 cubic feet) per second, making it similar to the last eruption in May, Pedersen of the Nordic Volcanological Centre stated.

The length of the fissure in the volcano, which has actually erupted 6 times considering that December, broadened to 5 km (3.1 miles) during the day from 3.9 km late on Thursday, Pedersen stated.

The neighboring fishing town of Grindavik, which was threatened by burning lava and hit by earthquakes during some earlier eruptions, was not straight impacted, the meteorological office said.

Lava streams stopped short of a close-by road, Pedersen stated.

Air traffic in and out of the capital's Keflavik Airport was not affected, it said on its site on Friday.

(source: Reuters)