Volatile Volcanoes Wake Up
The lava flows on the the ground after the Bardabunga volcano erupted again on August 31, 2014. Scientists estimate the fissure to be at least 1.5 kilometres long. The lava is estimated to be six to eight metres thick and flowing at a rate of about 1,000 cubic metres per second. Iceland cut its ash warning level for aviation to orange from red on Sunday, saying a fresh fissure eruption in Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano system was not creating ash. Iceland's largest volcanic system, which cuts a 190 km long and up to 25 km wide (118 miles by 15.5 miles) swathe across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the last two weeks and scientists have been on high alert. Reuters

The Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland erupted, throwing lava to a distance of more than 50 metres into the air on Aug. 31, reported Dawn.com. Due to the risk of ash as a blockage for aircrafts, an aviation alert has been raised to the highest level.

The volcano is the part of the largest volcanic system, spanning over 190 kilometers in length and 25 kilometers in width across the island in the North Atlantic. In the last few weeks, the region has been experiencing thousands of earthquakes, thus making the country's scientists observe high alert.

In an incident 4 years ago, in the year 2010, an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano, in another region of Iceland, led to the shutting down of the air space in Europe for a span of six days, with over 100,000 flights being cancelled, in fear that the ash cloud from the eruption will affect it.

Eggert Magnusson from the National Crisis Coordination Centre said that this eruption has only lava and no ash. The eruption started at around 0600 GMT, immediately after which the Icelandic Met Office raised the aviation warning to red in the early hours of Aug. 31. The aviation alert red is the highest on a color-scale of five, indicating that the eruption can cause a risk of ash.

The eruption was being monitored by the meteorological agency in the country and on its website, they wrote that the visual observation had confirmed that the eruption was calm but continuous.

The alert was then lowered down to orange 12 hours later, after improvement was observed. Before the eruption took place, the alert was on orange for several weeks, as it was suspected that an eruption will take place.

The aviation authorities said that the danger area spans to an area 6,000 feet above the ground around the volcano. The eruption is said to have been along a front of 1.5 kilometers, said the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

A volcanologist from the Open University in Britain, Dave McGarvie, said that the eruptions produced only lava and very less amount of ash, causing no aviation disruption. He continued that it was good news that the eruption was contained as if it wasn't, then it would have resulted in a lot of flooding.

YouTube/ WorldBreakingNews

RELATED STORIES