News
Volcano erupts in South Iceland
March 27th 2010
The volcano close to Eyjafjallajökull glacier started to erupt on March
20th. An evacutation plan was started immeditately and about 500 people were
moved from the area. They were allowed to go home the next day.
The volcano has from the start been spewing lava and throwing up a plume
of smoke about one kilometer high. For the last few days thousands of people
have been travelling to Fljótshlíd to see the volcano in action. It is a most
spectacular sight, especially at night.
Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, although most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. The last eruption took place in 2004.
Scientists had been monitoring the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has been dormant since 1821, for signs of seismic activity but said there had been little warning of an eruption on Saturday.
Since the year 1963 there have been 21 eruptions in Iceland, but the only one in recent history to cause any serious damage took place in 1973 in the Westmann Islands and caused no casualties.
Nobody knows for how long the volcano will be active; some specialists say it can end soon but it can also go on for a year or too.
Read about the eruption in Iceland Review