Science Media Centre

Ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which began erupting in Iceland on Wednesday, has caused flights across the UK and much of Western Europe to be grounded – something not seen in decades. The grounding is due to the danger posed by volcanic ash – if sucked into airplane engines, it can cause them to fail. [...]

Air traffic across Europe, including flights from Britain to New Zealand have been halted as ash from an Icelandic volcano drifts towards the continent. The volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. Our colleagues at the Science Media Centre in London have rounded up extensive commentary [...]

The volcanic eruption on the small islet of Hunga Ha’apai, near Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa on Thursday has devastated birdlife and vegatation in the area, but reminded us of how spectacular vocanic erutions can be. Many will have been reminded of Mt Ruapehu’s sizeable eruption in 1995 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Owqm4KHiM[/youtube] Wired has collected a series of photos of [...]