Dr David Rothery, Dept of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the Open University, said:

"Last night's eruption of the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland came as no great surprise, as ground deformation beneath the ice had been increasing since at least February, accompanied by swarms of small volcanic earthquakes concentrated beneath the icecap. For the past two weeks, students on the Open University volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunami course had been keeping and eye on data provided online by Icelandic scientists, in anticipation that an eruption would occur.

"Some volcanic ash is being flung into the sky and flights to Reykjavik have been diverted. The London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (responsible for the northern Atlantic area) issued a Volcanic Ash Advisory at 06:00 this morning to warn aviation to avoid the area: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/vaacuk.html

"Icelanders have been evcuated from vulnerable areas. The greatest hazard is an outburst of melted water trapped below the ice cap (called a jokulhlaup, or glacier-burst) that could cause violent flooding and destroy infrastructure such as the coast road."