Iceland Lifts All Airspace Restrictions After Volcanic Eruption

Aug 30, 2014 09:00 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Iceland officials have confirmed that a small volcanic eruption in the Bardarbunga volcano system that started in the early hours of Friday has stopped and it has lifted all airspace restrictions.

Earlier in the day (Aug. 29) the Icelandic Meteorological Office dropped its ash warming level for aviation to orange after determining the eruption posed no threat to aircrafts.

"A fissure eruption which started at midnight at Holuhraun lava north of Vatnajokull glacier, ended at around 0400 GMT (12 a.m. EDT)," the National Crisis Coordination Centre said in a statement, according to Reuters. "The fissure has been estimated to be 600 meters long and is situated 5 km north of Dyngjujokull glacier in north-Vatnajokull glacier."

There continues to be seismic activity in the location however.

Iceland's largest volcanic system, which is 120-miles-long, and around 15-miles-wide across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the last two weeks, causing scientists to be on high alert.

The Icelandic Met Office has raised its aviation warning code to red near the Bardarbunga volcano erupted. There have been no signs of ash like that from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption that shut much of Europe's air space in 2010.

The eruption occurred at the top of a magma dyke 40 km from the main Bardarbunga crater, Met Office seismologist Martin Hensch said, according to Reuters.

Nick Petford, a vulcanology expert at the University of Northampton in Britain, said fissure eruptions were often spectacular, but would usually die out in a couple of days.

"Exactly the same thing happened in 2010 with the Eyjafjallajokull volcano," Petford said, according to Reuters. "The main eruption was in April, but in March there was a fissure eruption which was a precursor to the much larger eruption."

The Eyjafjallajokull event was extremely disruptive because it pushed ash to the elevation used by transatlantic aircraft, while prevailing winds pushed the cloud into European air space.

The ash was also sticky due to its chemical composition, according to Reuters.

Petford said that scientists will look for signs of more quakes deeper under the volcano when the current eruption subsides. If more quakes are found, it would suggest more magma was welling up, and for any swelling of the volcano that could be measured by using GPS, according to Reuters.

"Those are pretty clear evidence that large amounts of magma are being stored within the volcano and that's a good indication it will explode," Petford said.

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