The Icelandic volcano which grounded air traffic over Europe is still erupting, but it is spewing less ash, Reuters quoted reported the meteorological office and experts as saying today. Close monitoring of the neighbouring and potentially more dangerous Katla volcano was also taking place, but there have been no signs it has re-awakened, they added. One professor said he was puzzled why the tremors in the erupting volcano continued to be so strong when the ash was going down, meaning there could be processes inside the volcano scientists did not know about. "There is ongoing activity in the volcano and we don't see any signs of it coming to an end. There is less ash production, it is probably the same as yesterday," met office official Gudrun Nina Petersen told a news conference. "The plume is very low, so most of the ash is falling here and keeping itself under 20,000 feet (6,000 metres)," she said. At the glacier, clouds of smoke still poured from the top of the volcano, though at much lower levels than previously. The dense clouds were also drifting down the snow capped mountain. The volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of the capital Reykjavik, has been erupting for a week. The huge ash cloud that it pumped out earlier in the eruption spread over most of Europe and aviation authorities grounded traffic for days due to fears of ash getting into plane engines and causing crashes. The ban has mostly been lifted. For locals, ash was set to continue to fall in areas close to the volcano. "The amount of ash that is being produced is much less, but it is more polluted," added Sigurdur Gislason of the Institute of Earth Sciences. He said the main concern about the ash was high levels of fluoride, which could poison livestock. -- SPA
