User:Delerium/Volcanic ash causes airport closures in Europe

date|May 25, 2011

Several hundred flights were cancelled in Northern Europe due to explosions from the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland filling the air with ash.

Scottish, English, Irish and German flights were cancelled due to the potential damage the volcanic ash can have on aircrafts' engines. Iceland's Keflavík airport and German airports Bremen and Hamburg were among some of the airports closed following the initial eruption.

Grimsvotn began erupting on Saturday, May 21st. By Tuesday there was less ash venting and an altitude drop to less than 5000 metres. Wednesday saw a stop to the venting of ash, with just stem being emitted from the volcano. It has now been declared that the eruption is finally over with no activity since Saturday morning.

The particles from Grimsvotn’s eruption were larger than those from last year’s eruption at Eyjafjallajokull. These larger particles fell to the ground quicker and so the British weather service found that the disruption would be shorter than the previous eruption. A spokeswoman from the Department of Civil Portection in Iceland told AFP that "The eruption has stopped and we will be removing the precautionary label that had been assigned to Grimsvoetn...".

The Eyjafjallajokull eruption caused more than 100,000 cancellations across Europe affecting more than eight million passengers.

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Sources

"Iceland volcano ash closes airspace in northern Germany" — BBC News Online, May 25, 2011
"Volcanic ash approaches North Sea coast" — The Local, May 24, 2011
Rosemary O'Grady. "Open the skies, Ryanair chief urges authorities" — Independent Ireland, May 24, 2011
"Iceland's Grimsvoetn volcano eruption over: official" — Independent UK, May 30, 2011