Volcano Halts Icelandic Flights

A general view shows smoke rising as an eruption of the volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier occurs, some 120 km away from Reykjavik, Iceland. Photo by BGNES

The Icelandic authorities have imposed a local flight ban after the country's most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting.

A plume of smoke has risen 20km (12 miles) into the sky from the volcano.

But Iceland's Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic.

Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said the 2010 eruption was a rare event.

"The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or unremitting and fine-grained," he said, as cited by BBC.

"The ash in Grimsvotn is more coarse and not as likely to cause danger as it falls to the ground faster and doesn't stay as long in the air as in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption."

Domestic airline Icelandair said no traffic had been affected.

"We do not expect the Grimsvotn eruption to affect air traffic to and from the country in any way," said communications director Gudjon Arngrimsson.

Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, led to the closure of a large section of European airspace.

Governments feared that ash particles could cause aircraft engines to fail, and the closure caused chaos to air travellers.

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