Iceland volcano unlikely to impact flights; lava flows away from town

Lava spewing from a volcano in Iceland appeared to be flowing away from the only nearby town and the intensity of the eruption was dropping, offering hope that homes would be safe even though seismic activity could last months, officials said on Tuesday. The government said flights were unlikely to be affected, quashing international travel concerns lingering after chaos that resulted from the ash cloud caused by an eruption on the north Atlantic island in 2010. The eruption late on Monday on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland spewed lava and smoke more than 100 metres (330 feet) into the air after weeks of intense seismic activity. "The eruption does not present a threat to life," a government statement said. "There are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open." In 2010, ash clouds from eruptions at the Eyafjallajokull volcano in the south of Iceland spread over large parts of Europe, grounding some 100,000 flights in Europe and beyond, and forcing hundreds of Icelanders to evacuate their homes. Weather forecasting service AccuWeather said this eruption was very different. "If little to no volcanic ash is lofted into the atmosphere, there may be no impact to aviation," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said. The 2010 impact on air travel was largely caused by the interaction of magma with the melting water from a glacier, a different scenario to what is happening now. Matthew Watson, professor of volcanoes and climate at the University of Bristol in Britain, said it was "not impossible that there may be some impact on air travel", although it was unlikely. "This type of eruption doesn't generally produce much ash, which is what tends to ground planes."<br/>