Iceland: Grímsvötn Eruption “Will Not Impact Aviation for 24 Hours”

Iceland: grímsvötn eruption "will not impact aviation for 24 hours" 1
Grímsvötn eruption cloud (dark blue) courtesy icelandic met office

An eruption at the Grímsvötn volcano in Iceland began at 17:30 UTC on May 21st 2011. The subglacial eruption quickly broke the ice cover of the Vatnajökull glacier and created a cloud of steam and ash around 20km high.

Because the prevailing winds will take the ash plume East and North, it is not expected that the eruption will impact upon aviation within the first 24 hours. The weather radar at Keflavik International Airport -220 km away from the eruption site – is monitoring the eruption cloud.

The last eruption in Grímsvötn occurred in November 2004. Grímsvötn is Iceland’s most frequently erupting volcano.


In This Story: Iceland

Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 356,991 and an area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.

Iceland’ gained independence in 1918 and founded a republic in 1944. Although its parliament (Althing) was suspended from 1799 to 1845, the island republic has been credited with sustaining the world’s oldest and longest-running parliament.

Hit hard by the worldwide financial crisis, the nation’s entire banking system systemically failed in October 2008, leading to an economic crisis and the collapse of the country’s three largest banks. By 2014, the Icelandic economy had made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism.

Iceland has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army, with a lightly armed coast guard.

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A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, and most are found underwater.

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