Iceland's volcanic eruption the longest in half a century

It was six months ago yesterday that the volcanic eruption still mesmerizing spectators near Reykjavik first began, making it the longest Iceland has witnessed in more than 50 years.

The first lava began spewing out close to Mount Fagradalsfjall on the evening of March 19 on the Reykjanes peninsula to the southwest of Reykjavik.

And the ensuing spectacle – ranging from just a slow trickle of lava at times to more dramatic geyser-like spurts of rocks and stones at others – has become a major tourist attraction, drawing 300,000 visitors so far, according to the Iceland Tourist Board.

Iceland's sixth volcanic eruption in 20 years is already longer than the preceding one in Holuhraun, in the center-east of the island, which lasted from the end of August 2014 until the end of February 2015.

"Six months is a reasonably long eruption," said volcanologist Thorvaldur.

The lava field has been christened "Fagradalshraun" – which can be translated as "beautiful valley of lava" and takes its name from nearby Mount Fagradalsfjall.

Almost 143 million cubic meters of lava have been spewed out so far. But that is just under a tenth of the volume of the Holuhraun eruption, which spewed out the biggest basalt lava flow in Iceland in 230 years.

The latest eruption is "special in the sense that it has kept a relatively steady outflow, so it's been going quite strong," said Halldor Geirsson, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Science.