Tobacco and lavain bright orange, are still coming out of the volcano which exploded on Saturday in Icelandfor the fourth time since December.

The activation of the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula, near the capital Reykjavik, is the seventh since 2021. Then it erupted again, after 800 years of being dormant.

Artificial barriers have been able to successfully divert lava from significant infrastructuressuch as the Schwarzenegger geothermal power plant, and the city Grindavik.

Footage broadcast by public broadcaster RUV shows a river of lava flowing within a few hundred meters of the town which was evacuated in November and again in February.

“Grindavik’s defenses proved their worth (…) they directed the lava towards the designated area,” local utility HS Orka reported.

Lava flows continue at a steady pace today and it is too early to predict when it will end, Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, told RUV.

Authorities say infrastructure and a nearby fishing village are safe for now.

Magma had been building up underground since the last eruption in February, prompting authorities to warn of an imminent eruption.

On Saturday they issued a warning just 15 minutes before the molten rock fountains begin rising to the surface from a 3km-long fissure, roughly the same size and location as the February eruption.

The February eruption lasted less than two days, while the 2021 volcanic activity lasted six months.