May 14th, 2010
09:44 AM ET

Volcanic ash shuts down Iceland airport

A NASA satellite captures the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano's ash plume, which can be seen colored brown.

Volcanic ash forced the closing of Iceland's main airport Friday.

Officials said they hope to reopen Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavík at midnight (8 p.m. ET).

Watch a webcam view of the Volcano

Earlier this week, ash from an Icelandic volcano shut down traffic at airports from central Spain to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, air traffic control authorities said.

The problems began in mid-April, when the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland erupted and sent a cloud of ash into the atmosphere, disrupting international travel for several days.

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Filed under: Air travel • Iceland • Uncategorized
soundoff (11 Responses)
  1. Brit

    I think this is all Bush's fault. A CNN blog would not be complete without it!

    May 14, 2010 at 10:15 am | Report abuse |
  2. red

    When is this stupid volcano going to give it up. It's 15 minutes of fame are way over. Prima Donna!!!!!!

    May 14, 2010 at 10:26 am | Report abuse |
  3. Port Services

    The plume of volcanic ash from the erupting Icelandic volcano is now seven to nine kilometres in height.

    It is likely that UK airspace will close from this Sunday 16th May onwards, starting with Scotland and Ireland and stretching to the whole of the UK by Monday with a gradual reopening from Tuesday onwards.

    May 14, 2010 at 10:28 am | Report abuse |
  4. doofus

    five bucks says the people at Energizer are plotting some ad campaign

    May 14, 2010 at 10:35 am | Report abuse |
  5. Jim

    The last time this volcano erupted it lasted 2 years ... there is a long way to go and the big one, Katla, is still to be heard from

    May 14, 2010 at 10:37 am | Report abuse |
  6. Ben

    Who would have suspected that removing billions of tons of ice from the surface of the earth above a dormant volcano would relieve enough pressure to allow it to erupt? The "crazy climate change liberal scientist" maybe, but what do they know. The volcano gods are probably just angery. We need to find a virgin to sacrifice...

    May 14, 2010 at 10:42 am | Report abuse |
  7. AJew

    Hey Brit, comically enough it could, in some way BE Bush's fault. LOL. Global Warming, which he refused to believe in or address, reduces the thickness of the glacier covering the volcano. The mass of the glacier being there helps prevent the volcano from erupting. As the mass is reduced, it becomes more likely that this, or any other glacier covered volcano will erupt!

    May 14, 2010 at 10:44 am | Report abuse |
  8. Belinda

    The Keflavik airport is not in Reykjavik. It is in Keflavik, which is 30 miles southwest of Reykjavik.

    May 14, 2010 at 10:47 am | Report abuse |
  9. JJ

    Hey AJew,

    Come on...can you really blame something that big on one person. Same deal for Obama. Bush got blame now Oboma does. Stop playing the blame game. Assume you are donig you bit by riding a bike to work, not mowing your lawn and not eating meat on Fridays?

    May 14, 2010 at 11:01 am | Report abuse |
  10. Marc

    LOL! Do people still believe in global warming? Wow. You might want to check your facts. Glaciers all over the world and the Arctic ice are actually growing/expanding. Al Gore got rich because a bunch of suckers believed him. More power to him.

    May 14, 2010 at 11:57 am | Report abuse |
  11. Jakob Bertel

    Last saturday, the ash eruption ceased. Just in time for my visit of the environment of Eyafjallajökull! I traveled through an amazing landscape of ash covered meadows, where tips of grass are struggeling through the ash carpet. Rivers are washing heavy loads of black sand into the sea. And the glaciers! I’ve seen many of them, but this was the first time I’ve seen blue ice sticking out og a black moon landscape of ash-covered ice moutains and canyons!

    See some blog photos of the post-eruption situation in Iceland here:

    http://abc4trip.eu/volcano-fun-in-iceland-while-air-traffic-is-shut-down/

    JK

    May 26, 2010 at 5:54 am | Report abuse |
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