REYKJAVIK: A new eruption in Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano system spewed lava more than 50 metres in the air on Sunday prompting authorities to raise their warning of the risk of ash to aviation to the highest level on Sunday.

Iceland’s largest volcanic system, which cuts a 190 km long and up to 25 km wide swathe across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the last two weeks and scientists have been on high alert.

In 2010, an ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, in a different region of Iceland, closed much of Europe’s air space for six days.

The latest eruption has not led to ash clouds, however.

“There is no ash, only lava,” Eggert Magnusson at the National Crisis Coordination Centre said.

The current eruption began around 0600 GMT prompting the Icelandic Met Office to raise its aviation warning code to red from orange for the Bardarbunga area.

Red is the highest level on a five-colour scale and indicates that an eruption is imminent or under way, with a risk of spewing ash.

Iceland’s aviation authorities have declared a danger area which reaches from the ground to 6,000 feet around the volcano.

The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said the eruption is along a 1.5-kilometre front.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014