Icelandic volcano eruption intensifies

A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a six-kilometre-high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said yesterday.

The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air and showed no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity, said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland.

"The seismographs are showing that since this morning the intensity of the eruption seems to be growing," he said yesterday.

Hot fumes had melted up to a third of the glacial ice covering the crater, causing a nearby river to burst its banks, and frequent explosions on the floor of the crater sounded like bombs going off, he said.

The floods were abating, however, and some of those living in the sparsely populated area near the volcano had returned to their homes.

Meanwhile the huge ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano turned the skies of northern Europe into a no-fly zone yesterday, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The European air safety organisation said the disruption, the biggest seen in the region, could last another two days and a leading volcano expert said the ash could present intermittent problems to air traffic for six months if the eruption continued. Even if the disruption is short lived, the financial impact on airlines could be significant, a consultant said. The International Air Transport Association said only days ago that airlines were slowly coming out of recession.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverised rock which can damage engines and airframes and an Icelandic volcanologist said the eruption was growing more intense.

Another scientist said the eruption was 10 times more powerful than one which occurred last month on the flank of the volcano, though the two were part of the same event.