Iceland’s Volcano Eruption Abates, Ash Plume Dwindles
May 22, 2011, 6:06 PM EDTBy Omar R. Valdimarsson
(Adds information on ash fall in eighth paragraph.)
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- A volcanic eruption under Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull, is abating after it forced Iceland’s main international airport to close, the second such disruption in 13 months to the island nation’s air traffic.
“It’s likely that the eruption is dwindling,” Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a geologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences with the University of Iceland, told national broadcaster RUV. “What we’ve seen is that it has slowed. It went down to being similar as the eruption in 2004 and in Eyjafjallajokull last year.”
The height of ash plume has diminished to 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from 20 kilometers, according to a statement from the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Meteorologists used a new weather radar system to monitor the development.
An eruption at Eyjafjallajokull on April 14, 2010, closed European airspace for six days, grounding 100,000 flights at a cost of $1.7 billion, according to an estimate then by the International Air Transport Association. Iceland, with about 320,000 inhabitants, is one of the world’s most volcanically and geologically active countries and eruptions are frequent.
Yesterday’s blow-up began at about 6 p.m., about 220 kilometers southeast of Reykjavik at the Grimsvotn chamber, which lies under Vatnajokull. The volcano sent ash into the air, causing delays today of some Scandinavian trans-Atlantic flights. The volcano is the most active in Iceland and its latest venting ended in 2004. Grimsvotn and Eyjafjallajokull are about 150 kilometers apart.
Predictability Issue
It’s impossible to say for sure when the eruption will come to a complete stop, said Gudmundsson. Previous eruptions by Grimsvotn have usually lasted a few days with limited or no impact on international air traffic, he said.
Iceland’s Keflavik International Airport was shut down this morning amid fears that the ashes might damage jet engines. The halt has grounded airplanes. Icelandair Group hf said on its website it will cancel all European flights tomorrow morning, affecting 6,000 passengers.
Ash fall covered small towns on Iceland’s southeast cost immediately following the eruption on yesterday. Around 6 p.m. today a dark cloud of ash reached Reykjavik, prompting city officials to warn people with asthma or other breathing disorders from venturing outside.
Yesterday’s eruption hasn’t had an impact on the U.K.’s airspace and no routes or airports have been closed, said Aarti Parajia, a spokeswoman for National Air Traffic Services Ltd., in a telephone interview.
Eurocontrol, which oversees flight paths in the region, said in an e-mailed statement there was no impact on European or trans-Atlantic flights.
“The airspace over Iceland is closed, so you have to fly around it,” Mikkel Thrane, a spokesman for Scandinavian airline SAS Group, said in a telephone interview. “There have been no cancellations.”
--With assistance from Marianne Stigset in Oslo, Michelle Frazer in London, Jim Neuger in Brussels. Editors: Kim McLaughlin, Chris Thompson
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Brogger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net
