PDC Updates | April 16, 2010
Iceland Volcanic Eruption
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano sends ash into the air just before sunset on Friday, April 16. (Photo: Brynjar Gauti for AP)

According to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, located in Southern Iceland, erupted in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, April 14th, sending an 8 km ash plume into the atmosphere. Prior to the eruption, the volcano had begun to show signs of a downward trend in activity, which had resulted in a drop of one warning level by the Icelandic Civil Protection Department only two days before Wednesday's eruption. The April 14th eruption occurred from a new vent beneath the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. In addition to the ash plume, the eruption also sent melt waters from the glacier into nearby towns resulting in damage and evacuations.

The towering ash-plume from the eruption, combined with current wind speeds, wind directions and other factors, have turned the eruption in Iceland into a headache for air travelers crossing that Atlantic from North America or attempting to fly between airports in Europe. Planes cannot fly safely through the "grinding silica ash."

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano is a stratovolcano, a type of volcano known for explosive eruptions. The last major eruption occurred in December 1821. The eruption lasted more than a year, ending in January 1823.

Here are some links to web resources about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano:

Some links may become inactive over time. If you find a broken or inoperative link to an external resource, you may want to search at that resource for the relevant information. If you find that a link referring to a pdc.org page fails, please inform the PDC Webmaster.