Iceland has closed its main airport and pilots have been warned to steer clear of areas close to an erupting volcano.
Grimsvotn, which lies beneath the ice of an uninhabited glacier in southeast Iceland, began erupting on Saturday for the first time since 2004.
It’s the volcano’s largest eruption in 100 years.
The event evoked memories of last April’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption, which grounded planes across Europe and disrupted the travel plans of 10 million travelers.
However scientists believe another aviation shutdown is unlikely, because the ash from Grimsvotn is coarser and falling to earth more quickly.
“It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted,” University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press.
“That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe.”
The ash from Grimsvotn – about 200 kilometres east of the capital, Reykjavik – turned the sky black yesterday and rained down on nearby buildings, cars and fields.
Civil protection workers helped farmers get their animals into shelter and urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors.
No ash fell on the capital.
Icelandic air traffic control operator ISAVIA established a 120 nautical mile (220 kilometre) no-fly zone around the volcano, closed Keflavik airport, the country’s main hub, and canceled all domestic flights.
It said Keflavik would stay shut until at least noon Monday, canceling about 40 international flights.
Trans-Atlantic planes – including Air Force One, due to carry President Barack Obama to Ireland later Sunday – were told to stay away from Iceland.
The European air traffic control agency in Brussels, Eurocontrol, however, said there was no impact on European or trans-Atlantic flights further south and said it did not anticipate any impact through Monday.
Britain’s Meteorological Office, which runs Europe’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, said the plume from the volcano would spread largely northeast until Monday, but some ash would creep south and east, toward the crowded skies over northern Europe.
Where it goes after that depends on the intensity of the eruption and weather patterns.
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