Iceland Volcano Prepares To Blow

The news of a possible imminent eruption comes just over a month after this year’s violent eruption at the Grimsvoetn volcano, in the south-east of the country.

That eruption subsided after less than a week, having spit out far more ash than Eyjafjoell, but due to more favourable winds for Europe caused far less air traffic disruption.

Mr Gudmundsson says the volcano tends to “produce both ash and lava within the first seconds of an eruption”.

He says lava eruptions are far less disruptive to air travel.

“If the next eruption is of the same character [as the previous ones] it is unlikely that it will have any effects on flights in Europe,” he said.

“But of course this depends on the size of the eruption, which is something that is impossible to predict.”

Both of Iceland’s latest eruptions provided warning signs several hours before, but Hekla is known for having a very short fuse.

“Hekla never gives you much of a warning,” Mr Einarsson said.

He says in 2000, it began rumbling an hour-and-a-half before the outbreak of magma, which “was actually an unusually long warning”.

“In 1970 we only got 25 minutes notice,” he said.

After Iceland’s last two eruptions, geologists have warned that the country’s volcanoes appeared to have entered a more active phase and that more eruptions could be expected, with Hekla believed to be first in line.

ZeroHedge