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\t\t\t\tby Agence France-Presse <\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Sverrir Thor via FlickrREYKJAVIK – A huge cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano covered northern Europe on Thursday, forcing the closure of vast swaths of international airspace and the cancellation of thousands of flights.<\/p>\n
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The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southeast Iceland melted a 250-meter thick glacier around it, causing severe floods. More than 700 people were evacuated from their homes.<\/p>\n
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Ash from the second major eruption in Iceland in less than a month blew eastwards across the North Atlantic, closing major airports more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) away.<\/p>\n
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Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden all shut down their airspace because the ash was a threat to jet engines and visibility. There was also major disruption in France, Finland, Germany and Spain.<\/p>\n
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More than 300 flights out of London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports were cancelled, including transatlantic services.<\/p>\n
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Hundreds more were hit across Britain and the rest of northern Europe. Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports with no firm estimate of when flights could start again.<\/p>\n
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“The cloud of volcanic ash is now spread across the UK and continuing to travel south,” said the National Air Traffic Services, which manages British airspace.<\/p>\n
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“In line with international civil aviation policy, no flights other than agreed emergencies are currently permitted in UK controlled airspace,” it said, as it grounded all non-emergency flights until 6:00 GMT Friday.<\/p>\n
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British Airways said it would run no flights in or out of Britain until at least Friday morning. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport prepared beds and meals for stranded travellers.<\/p>\n
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The ash was drifting at an altitude of about 5.0-6.0 miles (8.0-10 kilometers) and could not been seen from the ground. But experts said it posed a major threat to air traffic.<\/p>\n
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In the past 20 years, there have been 80 recorded encounters between aircraft and volcanic clouds, causing the near-loss of two Boeing 747s with almost 500 people on board and damage to 20 other planes, experts said.<\/p>\n
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Thanks to the winds, however, Icelandic airports remained open.<\/p>\n
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“Flights to and from Iceland are still OK. The wind is blowing the ash to the east,” Hjordis Gudmundsdottir of the Icelandic Airport Authority told AFP.<\/p>\n
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“It’s amazing really,” she said.<\/p>\n
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The volcano on the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in southern Iceland erupted just after midnight on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Smoke from the top crater stacked more than 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) into the sky, meteorologists said. Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported that a 500-meter fissure had appeared at the top of the crater on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Lava melted the glacier, causing major flooding that forced the evacuation of between 700 and 800 people. Evacuees were being directed to Red Cross centers.<\/p>\n
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“We have two heavy floods coming out from the melting of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier,” police spokesman Roegnvaldur Olafsson told AFP from near the site of the eruption on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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The eruption—in a remote area about 125 kilometers (75 miles) east of Reykjavik—was bigger than the blast at the nearby Fimmvorduhals volcano last month.<\/p>\n
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“It is very variable how long these eruptions last. Anywhere from a few days to over a year,” Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a professor of geophysics and civil protection advisor in Iceland, told AFP.<\/p>\n
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“Judging from the intensity of this one, it could last a long time.”<\/p>\n
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“There were more than 250 meters (820 feet) of thick ice on top of the crater. That quickly melted, causing massive flooding which caused some damage yesterday,” Gudmundsson added.<\/p>\n
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Olafur Eggertsson, a farmer, told how his family had to abandon their livestock when they fled their property, which lies in the path of one of two large floods of melt water coming from the glacier.<\/p>\n
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“We heard a lot of noise and saw mud and soil suddenly rushing down from the mountain. Just 30 minutes later we had mud and soil and a giant flood running into our dyke above the farm,” Eggertsson told AFP.<\/p>\n
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“We have 200 animals on our farm: cows and sheep who are all inside now. It takes some time for the dykes to be destroyed and I don’t know yet if they are in danger, but we are extremely worried,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Last month, the first volcano eruption at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier since 1823—and Iceland’s first since 2004—briefly forced 600 people from their homes in the same area.<\/p>\n
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That eruption at the Fimmvorduhals volcano, which gushed lava for weeks, ended Tuesday, experts said.<\/p>\n
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