![\"Alamy](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/21171025\/SEI_196882718.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>Lava erupting from a fissure near Grindavik, Iceland, on 20 March<\/p>\n
Associated Press \/ Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
The latest eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland have emitted a huge plume of sulphur dioxide (SO2<\/sub>) that is currently drifting across Europe. Fortunately, it isn\u2019t expected to have any significant effect on weather or health.<\/p>\n The SO2<\/sub> plume moved across Ireland and the UK towards Scandinavia on 20 March, the EU\u2019s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service<\/a> said today. It will reach the Baltic states, Poland and Russia on Friday.<\/p>\n In Iceland, one person working at the Blue Lagoon resort on the Reykjanes Peninsula was admitted to hospital<\/a> on 20 March after being exposed to high levels of SO2<\/sub> gas. However, the plume moving over Europe is well above ground level and won\u2019t affect the quality of the air below.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plume is at a higher altitude,\u201d says Mark Parrington<\/a> at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.<\/p>\n In November of last year, a massive crack 15 kilometres long and several kilometres deep formed under part of the Reykjanes peninsula<\/a>. Magma that had accumulated deeper down then poured into it at the fastest rate ever recorded<\/a>.<\/p>\n On 18 December, lava began erupting along part of this crack. There have now been four eruptions along it, with the latest and largest yet starting on 17 March.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe plume of SO2<\/sub> across Europe was created during the initial phase [of the latest eruption],\u201d says Freysteinn Sigmundsson<\/a> at the University of Iceland in Reykjav\u00edk.<\/p>\n The flow rate has slowed since the initial phase, says Freysteinn, but the eruption continues as of the afternoon of 21 March. \u201cThis eruption is different,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is now longer than the previous ones.\u201d<\/p>\n Some volcanic eruptions emit enough SO2<\/sub> to affect the global climate<\/a>, but the Iceland eruption isn\u2019t on anything like this scale. The plume will be too short-lived to affect the weather, says Parrington.<\/p>\n