- Consultants say potential volcanic eruption in Iceland unlikely to trigger journey chaos
As Iceland remained on excessive alert final evening for a serious volcanic eruption, specialists mentioned it will be unlikely to spark journey chaos.
An enormous eruption there in 2010 halted business flights throughout Europe for nearly every week – leaving 50,000 planes grounded and an estimated ten million travellers stranded.
However volcanologists say that won’t occur this time spherical, because the eruption 13 years in the past concerned a unique sort of magma, exploding via ice and inflicting positive ash to be belched into the higher environment.
The magma seen in current eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula is ‘very fluid’, that means bubbles of fuel might escape as an alternative of forming ash.
A member of search and rescue workforce jumps over the crack in a highway within the fishing city of Grindavik, which was evacuated as a consequence of volcanic exercise, in Iceland November 15

A police officer checks native residents ready of their vehicles to get entry to their houses within the fishing city of Grindavik, which was evacuated as a consequence of volcanic exercise

A common view of Reykjavik the capital metropolis of Iceland, within the winter after snowfall

An enormous eruption in Iceland in 2010 halted business flights throughout Europe for nearly every week – leaving 50,000 planes grounded and an estimated ten million travellers stranded (pictured: A cloud of volcanic matter rises from the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano April 18, 2010)
Professor Matt Watson, of Bristol College’s Faculty of Earth Sciences, informed The Mail on Sunday: ‘The 2010 eruption was an uncommon set of circumstances – it was on a glacier which threw up a mix of water and ash in climate situations which have been unlucky when it comes to journey.
‘That is not the case this time.’
Hagafell, close to the fishing port of Grindavik, is seen because the prime web site for an eruption as a result of monitoring stations have logged greater than 1,000 mini-earthquakes there because the early hours of Saturday with the biggest hitting a magnitude of two.8 on the Richter scale.
He added: ‘I am getting WhatsApp messages from mates asking if their flight to Copenhagen can be affected by this.
‘I inform them they need to be positive.
‘The Icelanders are glorious at decoding information and by monitoring earthquake exercise within the space – the fracturing rock – they’ve a reasonably good concept the place that is going to come out.
‘Volcanologists haven’t got a crystal ball, and issues can clearly change, however the almost certainly level is simply to the north of Grindavik.
‘Even when it occurred beneath the ocean the almost certainly situation would simply be the creation of a brand new island’.
Monitoring stations have logged as much as 1,000 mini-earthquakes within the area since early on Saturday.
A spokesperson for British Airways mentioned: ‘We proceed to watch the state of affairs intently. We can be in contact with prospects instantly ought to the state of affairs change.’
Icelandair mentioned flights have been working usually though it remained ‘in shut contact with Icelandic authorities’.

As Iceland remained on excessive alert final evening for a serious volcanic eruption, specialists mentioned it will be unlikely to spark journey chaos (pictured: cracks which emerged on a highway as a consequence of volcanic exercise, close to Grindavik, Iceland November 13)

police officer pulls a barrier to dam the highway resulting in the fishing city of Grindavik, which was evacuated as a consequence of volcanic exercise, on November 16