British holidaymakers were waiting anxiously to see if their getaways to Iceland would be withdrawn or postponed after the nation’s volcano erupted last night, with local experts warning that this was a very different creature to anything they’d seen before.
The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula just north of the evacuated town of Grindavik started last night at about 10.17 pm after an earthquake swarm, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said, referring to a string of small shakes.
Live streamed footage of the eruption showed molten lava spewing into the sky from cracks in the ground, encircled by billowing clouds of red smoke.
There are fears that the eruption, which has seen 200 cubic metres of lava spewing out from the fissures every second, could cause havoc to air traffic travel after another Icelandic eruption in 2010 grounded thousands of flights across Europe and North America and saw holidaymakers stranded.
Flights from Reykjavik’s international Keflavik airport were postponed last night, with an EasyJet flight to Manchester standing on the tarmac for five hours before taking off at 1.35 am due to the volcanic activity.
Passengers were told by EasyJet that they were sorry that their flight had been delayed, but this was because volcanic activity in Keflavik (KEF) was causing restrictions to the areas in which aircraft were permitted to fly.
British holidaymakers are now waiting anxiously to see if their flights will be withdrawn. However, the Icelandic government and airlines including EasyJet have said the airports in Iceland are not impacted and that flights should be operating as scheduled.
Indeed, Hallgrímur Indriðason, a journalist from Icelandic state broadcaster RUV, said there was ‘no threat to air traffic – at least not for now’ with Reykjavik’s international Keflavik airport remaining open today.
Indriðason told the BBC that the 2010 eruption was different because it erupted under a glacier and when this happens you get this huge explosive ash high up in the air which is very fine and stays up in the air for a long time.
He said that this was much different. This was a crack in the ground with lava flow and the ash doesn’t stay up in the air as much as in previous cases. So, unless they have an eruption under the sea, which there is a slim chance of, then there will be no impact on air traffic.
I love how the Icelandic people feel so relaxed about this, yet the UK media go into a frenzy endeavouring to cause a panic, but then that’s what we do the best.
I suppose when you live in a country that has ongoing volcanic activity you sort of get used to it, but something like this would be a bit alien to the rest of us, but hey life goes on.
I bet Sadiq Khan is already working out a way he can tax Londoners on this in the name of climate change.
Newspapers frequently embellish the news, that’s why it’s called a newspaper. I prefer to view any media attention like a comic, similar to Beano or Dandy, but I guess it provides light entertainment, but very seldom true-to-life, but I suppose it does pass the time on your way to work or when you’re on the throne.
This is Mother Nature at her best. The earth will always go through cycles of transition, so why are we endeavouring to fight it?
Look at the world around you. Mother Nature is awesome and we need to stop meddling with the planet and let her do her own thing.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 