Pictures: Iceland Volcano Spews Ash, Sparks Lightning

Fleeing the Ash

Photograph by Vilhelm Gunnarsson, AFP/Getty Images

Tourists leave the Islandia Hotel in Nupur, Iceland, where ash from the erupting Grímsvötn volcano choked the air on May 22. Some of the ash has settled over the capital city of Reykjavik, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of the volcano, according to the AFP news service.

(Related: "Iceland Volcano Ash Plume Prompts Health Worries [April 2010].")

Published May 23, 2011

Flash Amid the Ash

Photograph courtesy Jóhann Ingi Jónsson and A4X4T

Seen from the Vatnajökull ice cap, lightning streaks through an ash cloud billowing from the erupting Grímsvötn volcano on May 22.

So-called volcanic lightning is born of the same ingredients as lightning in a regular thunderstorm, Martin Uman, a lightning expert at the University of Florida in Gainesville, told National Geographic News in 2010. Those ingredients include water droplets, ice, and possibly hail all interacting with each other and with airborne particles—in this case ash from the eruptions—to cause electrical charging, Uman said.

(Related: "Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash [April 2010].")

Published May 23, 2011

Ash Above the Clouds

Photograph by Egill Adalsteinsson, European Pressphoto Agency

An aerial view shows the Grímsvötn volcano erupting on May 21.

In addition to Grimsvoten, six more volcanoes lie underneath Vatnajökull, Europe's largest ice cap—and most of them are active, according to National Geographic magazine.

(See aerial pictures taken in March 2010 of the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano.)

Published May 23, 2011

Leading a Horse to Safety

Photograph by Vilhelm Gunnarsson, AFP/Getty Images

Anna Hardadottir, a farmer in Horgsland, Iceland, leads a horse through the ash pouring out of the erupting Grímsvötn volcano on May 22.

(Also see "Iceland Volcano Pictures: Eruption Sparks Tourist Boom [April 2010].")

Published May 23, 2011

Clouds Over Ice

Photograph courtesy Jóhann Ingi Jónsson and A4X4T

Ash clouds crowd the sky over Iceland's Vatnajökull ice cap on May 22.

(See "Iceland Volcano Creates 27-Story 'Mountain' [April 2010].")

Published May 23, 2011

Ash Tracks

Photograph by Ingolfur Juliusson, Reuters

Tire tracks cut through a layer of volcanic ash outside a gas station in Kirkjubaejarklaustur in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on May 22.

Less than 24 hours after the eruption began late Saturday, experts and authorities in Iceland were saying that volcanic activity from Grímsvötn had begun to decline, according to the AFP.

(Read more about Iceland's volcanic landscape.)

Published May 23, 2011