Moment Iceland is rocked by another huge volcanic eruption as enormous geyser opens shooting molten ash and fire into the sky, with thousands evacuated

Video footage has captured the moment an enormous geyser opened up on the Reykjanes Peninsula, shooting molten ash and fire into the sky.

Local news reports said a powerful earthquake started at around 8.30pm today, followed by an eruption near the town of Grindavik at around 9.30pm. 

The eruption has been expected for a few weeks due to the ongoing seismic activity in the area and due to pressure changes in boreholes. 

Reports said rescue teams had been called up in Reykjanes and Ölfus, as thousands of people in Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon have been evacuated. 

Local authorities have asked residents to stay away from the area for their own safety and for the safety of emergency services. 

A YouTube live stream of the eruption has been launched, which currently has over 1,000 watchers, as lava bursts into the atmosphere and smoke billows in the air. 

Emergency services are still on the ground. 

Lava spurts and flows after the eruption of a volcano in the Reykjanes Peninsula near Grindavik

Lava pours out of the new fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula, near the town of Grindavik

Video footage has captured the moment an enormous geyser opened up on the Reykjanes Peninsula, shooting molten ash and fire into the sky

Lava fountains seen pouring out from the new eruptive fissure opened at Svartsengi volcanic system overnight

Local news reports said a powerful earthquake started at around 8.30pm today, followed by an eruption near the town of Grindavik at around 9.30pm

Aerial view of the lava flow shows it scorching the land and steam rising into the sky

A sign showing the direction to the famous blue lagoon with the new eruption in the background

The eruption can be seen in the distance from nearby Vogar in southwestern Iceland

Over several points in the past six months, thousands of Icelanders were evacuated from their homes in the town of Grindavik and the surrounding areas due to their proximity to the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula 

The British Ambassador to Iceland, Dr Bryony Mathew, posted a picture of the eruption on social media, with the caption: 'Here we go again! Volcanic eruption just started in Iceland. This is the view from the Residence in downtown Reykjavik.'

Angel Brownawell who is currently in Iceland on holiday said: 'We had no idea it would be today! We were eating dinner at the hotel bar when people started buzzing about breaking news. 

'I’m from the Washington DC area, so my immediate, almost instinctual reaction was that it was some political news.

'I’m back in my hotel room. I saw the smoke from the hallway window. It was red hued and mostly covered by cloud when it got dark. My husband and I weren’t certain if it was the volcano or the setting sun but the sun was past setting at that time.'

MailOnline previously reported that Iceland had been rocked by eight volcanic eruptions since 2021 that have sent citizens fleeing from their homes.

An international team of scientists studied lava samples and seismic data from the last three years of eruptions. 

They discovered that the peninsula is sat on an interconnected magma plumbing system that could keep volcanoes fed with molten rock for decades to come.

Lead author Valentin Troll, professor of petrology at Uppsala University, says: 'A comparison of these eruptions with historical events provides strong evidence that Iceland will have to prepare and be ready for this volcanic episode to continue for some time, possibly even years to decades.'

Tourists and visitors try to get a view of the eruption from a distance from the intersection between Reykjanesbraut and the road to Grindavik

Photographers and journalists were on location filming and reporting on the new fissure

Tourists and visitors try to get a view of the eruption from a distance

A picture from last night shows cars driving away from the area as the volcano erupts in the background

Emergency services on the scene of the volcanic eruption in Iceland 

The eruption took place near the evacuated town of Grindavik 

A live stream on YouTube currently has over 1,000 viewers 

Pictured: Iceland's popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist attraction, which has had to close and reopen several times due to eruptions

Iceland is located directly above something called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a boundary between the tectonic plates of Eurasia and North America.

As these plates drift apart, hot rock from Earth's mantle, the largest of the planet's layers, can squeeze its way up to the surface.

This makes volcanic eruptions a fairly common part of life, with one occurring about once every three to five years.

However, after remaining dormant for 800 years the islands Reykjanes Peninsula suddenly became active again in 2021 during the Fagradalsfjall Fires.

In late 2023 and early 2024 new volcanic fissures formed near the fishing town of Grindavik, pumping huge plumes of lava out onto the surface.

To understand why this area has suddenly been hit by such intense volcanic activity, scientists attempted to find out where the lava for these eruptions was coming from.

Just like every person has a unique fingerprint, every piece of magma has a unique combination of about 50 different trace elements and three different isotypes of oxygen.

Professor Ilya Bindeman, a volcanologist from the University of Oregon, explains: 'In the air we breathe, there's a mixture of these oxygen isotopes and we don't feel the difference.

'Their differences are usually not important for chemical reactions but are important to recognize as their relative abundances in magma can differentiate one magma source from another.'

By sampling the lava from different eruptions over the last three years, researchers realised that they all had an extremely similar chemical fingerprint.

Professor Troll told the MailOnline: 'Geochemical analysis of major and trace elements as well as stable isotopes imply that the magma erupting at Svartsengi since late 2023 is of the same type as the magmas that erupted at Fagradalsfjall between 2021 and 2023.

'Therefore the two eruption sites are fed from the same magmatic source at depth.'