Iceland farm main airport in the eruption of the volcano

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Iceland closed its main international airport Sunday as a volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash, smoke and 12 miles (20 km) of steam into the air.

Operator of the airport traffic control and air said ISAVIA Keflavik airport was closed at 0830 GMT (4: 30 pm EDT), and no flight was taking off or landing.

Hjordis Gudmundsdottir spokesman said the ash plume was covering the Iceland, but "the good news is that it leads not to Europe."

She said that the ashes blew rather West to Greenland.

She said officials were investigating whether other airports of the Iceland could take linked Keflavik flights.

Transatlantic flights were diverted from the Iceland, and no there was no sign that the eruption would cause widespread travel interruption triggered year last by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

In April 2010, officials closed the air space of the continent for five days, fearing that the ash could affect turbojet. Some 10 million travellers were blocked.

The Grimsvotn volcano under the Vatnaj?kull glacier uninhabited, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004.

Pall Einarsson, Geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said last year's eruption was a rare event and Grimsvotn would probably much less effect on international air traffic.

"The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or consistent and fine grain," said Einarsson. "The ash in Grimsvotn are more coarse and not more likely to cause danger, it falls to the ground more quickly and remain so long in the air as in the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull.

Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the most volcanic active countries and eruptions are frequent.

Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting of glacial ice, but rarely cause deaths. Police closed a main road near the volcano Sunday heavy ash fall.

Also, the Grimsvotn volcano erupted in 1996 and 1998, 1993. Eruptions lasted from one day to several weeks.

A volcanic eruption of the Iceland, the risk of theft of eye officials

REYKJAVIK - most Icelandic volcano erupted Saturday, launching a plume of ash and smoke far away in the sky, aviation officials were closely followed after another firm volcano European airspace for the days of last year.

The authorities banned flights the Grimsvotn volcano, but a government official said that the eruption was not expected to affect the movement of the European airline at least for the next 24 hours.

The plume of the Grimsvotn volcano shot 20 km (12 miles) into the sky. The website of the newspaper Morgunbladid, said that the eruption is more powerful than his last in 2004.

"We have closed the area until we know better what effect ashes will be," said Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, spokesman for the authority of civil aviation of Isavia which has imposed a ban on flying 120 miles around the area.

Eyjafjallajokull the Iceland caused chaos where it has degenerated in April of last year. The authorities stopped flights because of fears that dust and ash enter into aircraft engines and cause accidents after the cloud has blown in the air lanes in Europe.

Grimsvotn is located under the glacier Vatnaj?kull in the Southeast, the largest glacier in Europe Iceland. In the last eruption dates back to 2004 transatlantic flights had to be rerouted to the South of the Iceland, but no airports have been closed.

GUDMUNDSDOTTIR said winds in the region are solid and that Icelandic Isavia and Meteorological Office were coordinating with the volcanic ash Advisory Centres (VAAC), who advise airlines on the movement of volcanic ash clouds.

There are two VAAC near the Iceland, London and the French town of Toulouse.

"It may be a big eruption, but it is unlikely that like last year," Icelandic Met Office geologist Hjorleifur Sveinbjornsson told Reuters, referring to Eyjafjallajokull.

He said the plume from Grimsvotn was going to the North and that the Office for the next 24 hours forecasts were that ash would not affect European air traffic.

The volcano could erupt for several days, he added.

A positive factor for air traffic was that ash from this eruption was heavier, then the ashes last year was lighter and therefore more drifted.

ICELANDAIR OPTIMIST

Domestic airline Icelandair said that no traffic had been affected. "We do not expect the Grimsvotn eruption to affect air traffic to and from the country in any way," said the Director of communications Icelandair Gudjon Arngrimsson.

Photos on local media Web sites show a thick cloud of white smoke like a mushroom cloud on surrounding mountains.

"Grimsvotn is a very powerful volcano, therefore we will monitor closely, although a few recent eruptions were harmless", Iceland University Geophysicist Pall Einarsson said that on the site Web of Morgunbladid.

"Await us as just the crater and three last eruptions, which were very small, is a large", he added.