Iceland reopened the airspace over the Bardarbunga volcano system Friday afternoon, lowering a red alert to aviation declared earlier following an overnight eruption
celand reopened the airspace over the Bardarbungavolcano system Friday afternoon, lowering a red alert to aviation declaredearlier following an overnight eruption.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office, charged with monitoring volcanic activity, said it had lowered the alert level to orange, meaning flights could pass over the area.
While Bardarbunga, located under Europe's largest glacier, had not yet started spewing ash as of early Friday afternoon, the release of a massive cloud remained a possible scenario with potentially dire consequences for aviation.
The civil protection office said the eruption began in the Holuhraun lava field just after midnight (00:00 GMT) and had created a volcanic fissure of up to one kilometer (over half a mile) long.
The authority said it was an 'effusive eruption without significant explosive activity', meaning the lava flow was mostly on the surface of the volcano and that there was little 'airborne ash material'.
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