Grimsvoetn
© STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGESGrimsvoetn erupted in May, sending clouds over Iceland and causing flight delays
Iceland is making itself felt again on the world scene, with news that Hekla, one of its more active volcanoes, may be on the verge of spewing more of that flight-disturbing ash in the near future.

Hekla has erupted about every 10 years for the past 30 (in 1981, 1991 and 2000). Eyjafjallajökull's eruption in April 2010 created the worst peace-time disruption in air traffic ever, grounding as many as 100,000 flights and stranding millions (and losing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars). This May, Grimsvoetn erupted, shutting airports, and either delaying or cancelling several hundred flights.

There's of course no way to prepare for the eruption, and if you've got flights booked to, through or over Western Europe, you might take comfort from Icelandic geophysicist Pall Einarsson, who told Ice News last week, speaking of recent fears regarding Hekla, "I've been saying this for three or four years and 'soon' means different things to journalists and geologists."

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