Volcanic eruptions in Iceland
Let us do this in an orderly fashion, the latest news first, a bit of history finishing off with the volcano with the unpronounceable name og Eyjafjallajökull
Grímsvötn
Late in the evening of the 21st of May 2011 an eruption started on the north western part of Vatnajökull glacier, a place called Grímsvötn. As before, we do not expect any disruption to the event as the eruption is over 100km away from the nearest stage, but one never knows.
Five days after the eruption started it slowly become less and less and now only appears to be the sporadic explosion, which in many cases is just steam explosions, rather a proper eruption. Scientists carefully have stated they think this might be the end of this current round.
Two weeks after the eruption started official notification was given that it had run it course.
The history
Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is a mid-ocean ridge, and a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and the longest mountain range in the world. It separates the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate.
Because of this some seismic activity is usually to be found, but seldom experienced. The same goes for volcanic eruptions, their schedule being a bit unpredictable.
Eyjafjallajökull
One such volcanic eruption started a little before midnight 20th March, just off the eastern edge of Eyjafjallajökull glacier (A). Towards 12th April that eruption had all but stopped.
However, at between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning of the 14th April a volcanic eruption started in the top of Eyjafjallajökull glacier (B). The resulting flooding had ruptured road 1, the main road around Iceland, in at least one or two places around lunchtime the same day.
You might want to catch Rachel Maddows reporting on the eruption
There is an interesting time-lapse video on YouTube that shows a the eruption from sunrise to sunset on the 17th April 2010 in 41 seconds. A day in the life of a volcano
From the 23rd May 2010 the volcano has been dormant and the geologists have all but declared it over. However, one never knows, predicting eruptions is really not an exact science.
