Iceland closed its main international airport as a powerful volcanic eruption from a remote glacier sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 20 kilometres into the air.
Officials said the Keflavik airport would re-open at the earliest on Monday at noon. The airport has diverted domestic flights and cancelled about 40 international flights.
The Grimsvotn volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier about 200 kilometres east of Reykjavik, began erupting on Saturday. It had been quiet since 2004 but also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993.
A 220 km no-fly zone has been established around the volcano.
The volcano's eruption blackened the sky on Sunday and began raining down gray soot on nearby buildings, cars and fields. The ash "is not heading to Europe," according to spokeswoman Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, but is blowing northwest towards Greenland.
Scientists say the new eruption is 10 times more powerful than that of the 2004 eruption, but it is not likely to have the same global impact as the 2010 eruption from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
"It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted," University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press. "That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe."
Last year's eruption sent ash eastward over Europe, grounding planes and some 10 million travelers for five days.
Some airline chiefs complained that airport regulators had overreacted to the Eyjafjallajokull eruption, but a recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the travel shutdown was necessary.
The sharp particles of the ash from the volcano could have caused jet engine failure and damage to airplane windows, according to the report.
"The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or unremitting and fine-grained," said Einarsson. "The ash in Grimsvotn is more coarse and not as likely to cause danger as it falls to the ground faster and doesn't stay as long in the air as in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption."
Scientists have reported that the Grimsvotn volcano eruption has begun to slow down.
With files from Associated Press
