Iceland's looming volcano blast is just the beginning of a new era of volcanic eruptions that will last for centuries, with the build-up of magma beneath the coastal town of Grindavik signalling that more is to come, scientists have warned.

The Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula is threatening to erupt, with Iceland's Met Office saying that the 'likelihood of a volcanic eruption is high' and could happen at anytime in the coming days.

After 800 years of inactivity, a 2021 eruption marked the start of a new cycle of volcanic activity, and now Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, says that blast may have kicked off 'a new eruptive phase' which could last centuries.

'Time's finally up,' Edward W. Marshall, a researcher at the University of Iceland's Nordic Volcanological Center told Live Science. 'We can get ready for another few hundred years of eruptions on the Reykjanes.'

The region has been rattled by around 1,100 new earthquakes since midnight, with experts warning that magma is rising ever closer to the earth's surface fueling fears of an imminent volcanic eruption.