Worries over Iceland volcano

Last updated 10:24 22/04/2010

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Volcano now spewing less ash

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The Icelandic volcano which grounded air traffic over Europe is spewing less ash, but continues to erupt, with strong tremors - creating a puzzle for scientists.

Professor Pall Einarsson of the Institute of Earth Sciences, said the eruption was not losing force, though its explosivity, which had pushed up the plume of ash, had fallen.

"The plume at its highest was 9km. It hasn't been going over 3km now for several days," he said. He saw no sign of the eruption ending as the tremors from it were high.

"If the tremor was going down at the same time as the plume I would say we understand this. Now they are not going together. There is something going on that we don't understand. I don't like it particularly," he said.

On the other hand, he said, lava might be forming under the glacier, which would eventually flow down the glacier. This would not be particularly harmful.

He said the neighbouring and potentially more dangerous Katla volcano, which last had a major eruption in 1918, was being closely monitored.

Katla is under a much larger glacier which is next to the current eruption and history shows that it often followed its next door neighbour in eruption.

"We don't see any signs at the moment that Katla has been re-awakened by this activity, but of course we still have to keep this possibility in mind," he said.

But the potential for damage was greater if Katla did blow.

"Eyjafjallajokull is a rather mild volcano, it is not very fierce. Katla, on the other hand, is a rather fierce volcano, it is highly active and it's dangerous," he said.

The volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, about 120km southeast of the capital Reykjavik, has been erupting for a week.

The huge ash cloud that it pumped out earlier in the eruption spread over most of Europe and aviation authorities grounded traffic for days due to fears of ash getting into plane engines and causing crashes. The ban has mostly been lifted.

For locals, ash was set to continue to fall in areas close to the volcano.

"The amount of ash that is being produced is much less, but it is more polluted," said Sigurdur Gislason, also of the Institute of Earth Sciences.

He said the main concern about the ash was high levels of fluoride, which could poison livestock.

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- Reuters