Eyjafjallajökull (Aya-feeyalla-yurkul), a volcano on the Eastern Volcanic Zone in

southern Iceland, began to erupt on 14 April and that eruption is ongoing.

A plume of volcanic ash is ejected several kilometres into the atmosphere by this eruption,
potentially causing a hazard for aeroplanes. UK airspace was closed from 15–20 April, causing
significant disruption, and was reopened following new guidelines about ash densities that could
be tolerated by aircraft.

Occasional disruption continues when increased explosive activity at the volcano coincides with
northerly to north-westerly winds that bring the ash towards Europe.

There is no sign that the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull is about to end, and so it is likely that
disruption to flights may continue to occur from time to time. Details of the area likely to be
affected by ash can be found through the Met Office VAAC. Regular status reports on the volcano
are issued by the Icelandic Met Office.
The first eruption, on 20 March 2010, came from an ice-free area on the north-east side of the
volcano, which is 1660 m high (5300 feet), with an ice cap on the upper slopes. This first phase of
eruption produced lava, with little explosive activity. A subsequent phase of eruption then began
in a 2.5 km-wide caldera beneath the ice cap near the summit of the volcano on 14 April. This
eruption caused melting of large amounts of ice, leading to flooding in southern Iceland.
Researchers at the University of Iceland estimated that there was around 1 km3 of ice in the
summit crater and that about 25 per cent of this was melted in the first two days of the eruption.
The interaction of magma with water created a plume of volcanic ash and gas over 10 km (33 000
feet) high, which spread out and was carried by winds south-eastwards towards the Faroe
Islands, Norway, and northern Scotland.

On Sunday 18 April researchers from the University of Iceland estimated that about 750 tonnes of
magma were ejected from the volcano every second. By 20 April, most of the ice in the crater
appeared to have melted, the plume was only reaching heights of up to 4 km (13 100 feet), and
the amount of material being ejected into the plume had increased significantly. As the amount of
ice available to interact with the magma decreased, the volcano changed from producing ash to
mainly producing fire fountains. By the end of April explosive activity had virtually ended, with a
weak plume largely made up of steam, but flowing lava had advanced a few kilometres
northwards from the crater.

In early May, explosive activity began to increase again, with more ash being ejected into the
plume. Plume height was generally around 4–6 km, but reaching at times up to 8–9 km. During
the first two weeks of May, the activity became cyclical, and earthquake activity recorded the rise
of magma and gas from depth beneath the volcano. The explosive activity was now driven by gas
dissolved in the rising magma, rather than by the interaction of magma and water.
Analysis of collected dust particles
Dust particles believed to be volcanic ash were collected by a BGS scientist, from a previously-
clean car windscreen, in Loughborough on 20 April 2010
Movement on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between the Eurasian and North American
tectonic plates. As these two plates move apart, magma continually wells up along the ridge,
creating new sea floor.

In Iceland, this ongoing ridge volcanism interacts with a mantle plume, which brings magma to
the surface from deep within the Earth. This interaction of two different types of volcanism has
created the island of Iceland, which is made up of many active volcanoes.
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano is being monitored closely by Icelandic researchers who are using
GPS to study ground movements and seismic data to investigate earthquakes related to the
movement of magma. The Icelandic Met Office has also been monitoring the eruption plume,
which was reaching a mean height of around 4 km (13 100 feet) on 18 April — significantly less
than at the start of the eruption.
Around December 2009, seismic activity was detected in the volcano area, with thousands of
small earthquakes (mostly magnitude 1–2 on the Richter magnitude scale, with only a couple
greater than 3 magnitude) 7–10 kilometres (4.3–6.2 mi) beneath the volcano.[11] On 26
February 2010, unusual seismic activity along with rapid expansion of the Earth's crust was
registered by the Meteorological Institute of Iceland.[12] This gave geophysicists evidence that
magma was pouring from underneath the crust into the magma chamber of the Eyjafjallajökull
volcano and that pressure stemming from the process caused the huge crustal displacement at
Þorvaldseyri farm.[13] The seismic activity continued to increase and from 3–5 March, close to
3,000 earthquakes were measured at the epicentre of the volcano.

The eruption is thought to have begun on 20 March 2010, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) east of the
top crater of the volcano in a popular hiking region called Fimmvörðuháls. This first eruption, in
the form of a fissure vent, did not occur under the glacier and was smaller in scale than had been
thought by some geologists.

On 14 April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull resumed erupting after a brief pause, this time from the top crater
in the centre of the glacier, causing meltwater floods (also known as jökulhlaup) to rush down the
nearby rivers, and requiring 800 people to be evacuated.[4] This eruption was explosive in nature
and is estimated to be ten to twenty times larger than the previous one in Fimmvörðuháls. This
second eruption, which is ongoing, threw volcanic ash several kilometres up in the atmosphere
which led to air travel disruption in northwest Europe for six days from 15 April and in May 2010,
including the closure of airspace over many parts of Europe. [14] The eruptions also created
electrical storms.[15]. There are no signs yet of the eruption ceasing.