The power of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, has not yet abated. Travel chaos across Europe may be with us for a long time as geologists have warned that the volcano could go on erupting for months. Sigrun Hreinsdottir, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, has warned that the eruptions could carry on in cycles for quite some months. No-one has yet predicted how long the present eruptions might continue and to add salt to the wound, they have not even been classified as major eruptions.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano has only erupted three times during the last 1200 years. The most worrying thing is that during the 1820s, i.e. the most recent notable eruption, records show that it erupted intermittently for just over a year. However, following the previous three eruptions there has been a major eruption of the nearby Katla volcano which dwarfed those of the Eyjafjallajökull. The last time that the Katla blew off steam was in 1918 but prior to that it had erupted approximately every 70 years. Fortunately, the Icelandic meteorological office has stated that at the moment there is no evidence of ground rumblings beneath Katla.

Thousands of flights to and from European airspace have already been cancelled and with weather forecasters predicting that the winds blowing the volcanic ash south east to Europe will continue in the same direction for at least another two days and could go on until Wednesday, it looks like more travel chaos is expected.

It is estimated that the grounding of flights has already cost the British economy at least £920 million, with estimated losses of £230M per day as long as it continues. Ferry operators are taking record bookings and Eurostar trains are fully booked through to Tuesday.

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