Iceland volcano starts erupting

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano began erupting Saturday under the ice of Europe’s largest glacier, prompting the country to close the airspace over the volcano.

Thousands of small earthquakes have rattled the volcano, located deep beneath the Vatnajokull glacier, in the last week. Seismic data indicated that magma from the volcano was melting ice beneath the glacier’s Dyngjujokull icecap, Meteorological Office vulcanologist Melissa Pfeffer said.

The remote area, 200 miles east of the capital of Reykjavik, is uninhabited.

The Civil Protection Department said scientists flew over the ice cap Saturday afternoon but saw no visible signs of the eruption on the surface.

Still, authorities raised the country’s aviation alert to red – the highest level on a five-point scale – indicating the threat of “significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.”

Icelandic authorities declared a no-fly zone of 100 nautical miles by 140 nautical miles around the eruption as a precaution, but did not shut down airspace over most of the island nation in the North Atlantic.

Pfeffer said it was not clear when, or if, the eruption would melt through the ice – which is between 330 and 1,300 feet thick – and fling steam and ash into the air. She said it could take up to a day for the ice to melt – or the eruption might remain contained beneath Europe’s largest glacier.

Scientists were monitoring a hydrological station downstream from the volcano for flooding, a common result of volcanic eruptions in Iceland.

Pfeffer said the amount of ash produced by the new eruption would depend on the thickness of the ice.

“The thicker the ice, the more water there is, the more explosive it will be and the more ash-rich the eruption will be,” she said.