Volcanic Eruption in Iceland

A volcanic eruption on the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland has caused an evacuation of the area and flight cancellations throughout Europe. The eruption of this volcano is extremely rare with the last recorded eruption having occurred in 1821. This has been the second eruption of the volcano in 30 days and has caused more than 800 residents to seek shelter in Red Cross shelters. The evacuation of residents was caused by fears that the eruption would cause melting of the glacier and lead to massive flooding in the area. The melting of glacier ice has already caused the water-levels in rivers to rise over ten feet.

All of the smoke and ash billowing out of the volcano has had a dramatic affect on airline traffic in Europe. There are currently over 6,000 flight cancellations across Europe with many more expected over the course of this week. The countries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, and The Netherlands have all announced closure of their airspaces. There is no known time table for when flights can resume, however there are several events which need to occur for these national airspaces to open up for airliners.

According to geophysicist Matthew Watson speaking during a CNN interview: "You really need two things to happen: You need the volcano to stop emplacing ash to the altitude that commercial aircraft fly at, 30,000 to 35,000 feet, and you then need the upper-level winds to blow the ash and disperse it out of the air space." He went on to add that if that were to occur right now that it would still take 24 to 48 hours to clear airspace of any volcanic dust and ash. And according to Icelandic authorities, at 1:30p.m.ET the volcano was still eruption sending plumes of ash and smoke into the atmosphere.