The eruption of a volcano on the Eyjafjallajokull Glacier in Iceland which began on Wednesday will not lead to an ecological catastrophe, a Russian scientist said.
"One volcano, even if the eruption is violent, cannot do anything catastrophic," the president of the environmental organization Green Cross Russia and member of the Russian Academy of Natural Science, Sergei Baranovsky said.
"Yes, visibility will worsen, yes, there will be fallout, but it won't necessarily be toxic," Baranovsky said, adding that the eruption would not lead to an ecological catastrophe if it did not continue for a long period of time.
Baranovsky said that it was hard to predict how long the eruption would last.
The volcano, which had been dormant for 200 years, began to erupt on 21 March. Iceland sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge.
A volcanic ash cloud from the volcano spread across Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries causing the suspension of flights in several European countries on Thursday.
MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti)
