Aviation alerts hit red as Iceland met office says eruption cannot be excluded
Aviation alerts have been set to red in Iceland as rumblings beneath a glacier betray the some geological malcontent.
Although some sources are reporting that eruptions are ongoing, that is not what was on the Icelandic met office's website at pixel time:
Presently there are no signs of ongoing volcanic activity. The aviation color code for the Bárðarbunga volcano remains red as an imminent eruption can not be excluded.
Red is the highest of five alerts however, and Bardarbunga volcano has been rocked by a series of earthquakes over the last week.
The volcano is being feted by the media because of the widespread chaos caused when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted four years ago. Around 100,000 flights were cancelled.
Since the 2010 eruption the regulations for flying through ash have been altered, meaning the levels of disruption are unlikely to be repeated.
The Times quotes a spokesperson for the UK's air traffic control organisation, NATS, as saying:
NATS is monitoring the situation and working in close collaboration with the Met Office, Department for Transport and our safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, as this dynamic situation develops further.
The paper also reports that scientists will be over-flying the glacier looking for signs of activity and monitoring a hydrological station for flooding; often the result when lava meets ice.