Eyjafjallajökull Eruption Irks Europe

Generally, it takes the threat of imminent death or disaster to get earth science onto the front page of newspapers, and today is no exception. A massive plume of ash emanating from the tongue-twisting Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland has thrown a wrench into much of Europe's travel plans; the silicate particles in the ash can melt in jet engines and cause them to stall. Fortunately, resident geologist and volcano buff Erik Klemetti has been covering Eyjafjallajökull's activity since it began almost a month ago. The cloud of ash seems poised to stick around all day, so if you're stuck at Heathrow, you could always kill time with the great photos live webcams Erik's gathered over at Eruptions (or write an email to Bobby Jindal about the value of volcano monitoring).

• Threat of Icelandic ash closes airspace over Europe
  
• Subglacial eruption underway at Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls in Iceland
  
• Beginning of the end or end of the beginning in Iceland?

Since posting The Buzz this morning, Eyjafjallajökull's stint as a global news-maker has helped push Eruptions over a big traffic milestone. Give Erik a hand for reaching one million pageviews!