April 21
Ash, dust and steam rise from beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Scientists are unable to predict when the eruptions might end.
Carolyn Kaster-AP
April 21
Henry Gaudru, president of the European Volcanological Society, talks about the situation in Iceland.
Salvatore Di Nolfi-AP
April 21
Europe's busiest hub, Heathrow Airport in London, is getting back up to speed as flights resume.
Alastair Grant-AP
April 21
Air controllers lifted all restrictions on German airspace, allowing a takeoff from Duesseldorf.
Frank Augstein-AP
April 21
Passengers wait to board the Pride of Bilbao in Santurtzi, Spain. The Britain-bound ferry will be carrying more than 1,200 people stranded by lack of flights.
Alvaro Barrientos-AP
April 21
At Gatwick Airport near London, people crowd into the departure area to await their flights.
Lefteris Pitarakis-AP
April 21
An unidentified woman hugs her daughter, who just returned from Costa Brava, Spain, to Gatwick Airport near London.
Lefteris Pitarakis-AP
April 20
A glacier east of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has been covered by ash spewing from its neighbor.
Ingolfur Juliusson-Reuters
April 20
The sun rises behind the volcano in Iceland. The Eurocontrol air traffic agency in Brussels said Tuesday that it expected as many as 60 percent of regularly scheduled flights to operate, but new eruptions could hinder travel.
Lucas Jackson-Reuters
April 20
A pilot gives the thumbs up after getting the go-ahead to leave Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland.
Peter Morrison-AP
April 20
British citizens board the British navy warship HMS Albion at Santander's port in northern Spain. The ship was to bring back to England nearly 800 British soldiers and civilians stranded by the volcanic ash cloud.
Juan Manuel Serrano-AP
April 20
Members of ground staff inspect an engine of a Lufthansa aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin. Germany's airspace was to open starting Tuesday afternoon.
Peter Morrison-AP
April 20
An Air France passenger plane takes off at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris.
Gero Breloer-AP
April 20
A plane flies over central London. U.K. passengers face a sixth day of airport closures as volcanic ash from Iceland continues to cover British airspace. "The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the U.K.," Britain's National Air Traffic Service said in a statement. "This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working."
Gonzalo Fuentes-Reuters
April 20
Passengers and soldiers wait to board a British warship in northern Spain.
Dan Kitwood-Getty Images
April 20
British ships arrived in Spain and France to collect stranded travelers. Most of southern Europe remained clear, with Spain volunteering to be an emergency hub for overseas travelers trying to get home.
Vincent West-Reuters
April 20
British citizens walk to board the British Royal Navy warship HMS Albion, not in picture, at Santander's port, northern Spain. A Royal Navy warship has sailed to Spain to rescue nearly 800 British soldiers and civilians stranded by the volcanic ash cloud and take them back home to England.
Juan Manuel Serrano-AP
April 20
Passengers chat, surrounded by their belongings, in the departures area of Madrid's Barajas airport. Large parts of Europe enforced no-fly rulings for a fifth day on Monday because of a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that has caused the worst air travel chaos since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Sergio Perez-Reuters
April 19
A lone employee of Germany's largest airline, Lufthansa, sits at an information counter in the terminal of the closed Stuttgart airport. Officials in Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands -- home to four of Europe's five largest airports -- said their air space was still closed Monday.
Wolfgang Rattay-Reuters
April 19
A flight information screen announces the suspension of air traffic at Zaventem international airport near Brussels. A few small European airports reopened Monday, while airline officials blasted widespread closures that they said were overzealous and costing airlines "at least $200 million a day."
Yves Herman-Reuters
April 19
Airplanes sit at an airport in Frankfurt, central Germany. Significant concern remained about the dangers posed by the clouds of volcanic ash being spewed out of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
Michael Probst-AP
April 19
Tourists from France rest on the floor at New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, near Tokyo. Several thousand air passengers were stranded in Asia as flights were grounded because of a massive cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano.
Koji Sasahara-AP
April 19
Travelers wait outside an Air France office in Paris. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office says all airspace north of an axis between Nice on the Mediterranean and Bordeaux near the Atlantic will remain closed through Tuesday morning.
Thibault Camus-AP
April 19
The ash plume of southwestern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano streams southward over the northern Atlantic Ocean in a satellite photograph.
Ho-Reuters
April 17
A film crew working for National Geographic set up on southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier after landing close to the volcanic eruption. Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below the glacial ice cap, magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit. The eruption is ongoing and forecasters have predicted that light prevailing winds in Europe mean that the situation for air travel is unlikely to change in the coming days.
Reynir Petursson-AP
April 18
A woman stands near a waterfall dirtied by ash that has accumulated from the ash plume of an erupting volcano near Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland.
Lucas Jackson-Reuters
April 18
A man cleans volcanic ash from a jeep following last week's eruption of a volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Major airlines that sent test flights into European air space found no damage Sunday from the volcanic ash that has paralyzed aviation over the continent, raising pressure on governments to ease restrictions that have thrown global travel and commerce into chaos.
Brynjar Gauti-AP
April 18
Stranded passengers sleep in front of a terminal at Schoenefeld airport outside Berlin.
Thomas Peter-Reuters
April 17
Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
Lucas Jackson-Reuters
April 17
Dairy farmer Berglind Hilmarsdottir from Nupur, Iceland, looks for cattle lost in ash clouds.
Brynjar Gauti-Associated Press
April 17
Marion Torres, 16, naps with a group of students from Lycee Etienne Bezout, a school in Nemours, France, as they wait at Dulles International Airport. Their flight to Paris was canceled.
Jacquelyn Martin-Associated Press
April 17
Passengers crowd the Milan railway station. Aviation authorities have extended a ban on flights in northern Italy until at least Monday morning.
Luca Bruno-Associated Press
April 17
The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit.
Brynjar Gauti-Associated Press
April 17
Farmers team up to rescue cattle from exposure to the toxic volcanic ash at a farm in Nupur, Iceland.
Brynjar Gauti-AP
April 18
Cots and blankets used by stranded travelers to Europe sit beneath the arrival and departure times inside Terminal 8 at JFK airport.
Michael Nagle-Getty Images
April 18
Travelers wait in a ticketing line at the international terminal of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Jessica Rinaldi-Reuters
April 18
Passengers wait at the closed international airport in Duesseldorf, Germany, as most countries in northern Europe suspended their air traffic due to ash clouds from the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Martin Meissner-AP
April 16
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland sends ash into the air prior to sunset. Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars.
Brynjar Gauti-AP
April 16
People at the Warsaw airport cluster near a flight information board. Cancellations could affect plans for foreign heads of state to attend Sunday's funeral for Poland's president, who died in Russia last week.
Petr Josek-Reuters
April 16
A sign on England's M23 highway warns motorists that Gatwick Airport near London remains closed.
Luke MacGregor-Reuters
April 16
A stranded passenger passes the time at Tegel Airport in Berlin.
Thomas Peter-Reuters
April 16
A sign at Geneva's Cointrin Airport updates passengers.
Denis Balibouse-Reuters
April 16
Smoke billows from the volcano at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. The ash cloud disrupted air travel on a scale unseen since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Ingolfur Juliusson-Reuters
April 16
A usually bustling Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport is deserted.
Kieran Doherty-Reuters
April 16
Passengers make the most of a solarium outside the departures area of the Son Sant Joan Airport in Mallorca, Spain.
Enrique Calvo-Reuters
April 16
With no way of knowing when flights might resume, Eurostar trains leaving Paris have sold out for the next few days.
Charles Platiau-Reuters
April 16
Passengers rest at Frankfurt Airport, one of the three biggest hubs in Europe.
Ralph Orlowski-Reuters
April 16
Vienna's departure halls were crowded with frustrated travelers. An industry trade group estimates that affected airlines are losing $200 million a day.
Heinz-Peter Bader-Reuters
April 16
Smoke billows from a volcano under a glacier in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland. This latest eruption has halted European air traffic from Scotland to Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
Arni Saeberg-Bloomberg
April 14
Authorities said it was not clear when it would be safe enough to fly again. One scientist in Iceland predicted the ejection of volcanic ash could continue for days or weeks.
Arni Saeberg-Bloomberg
April 14
In Iceland, hundreds of people have already fled rising flood waters since the volcano erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month.
Arni Saeberg-Bloomberg
April 14
Passengers in the departure lounge at Gatwick airport in London await more information about their fights. All flights in and out of Britain's airports have been grounded due to a plume of volcanic ash drifting across northern Europe from the eruption in Iceland.
Dan Kitwood-Getty Images
April 15
A departures board at Terminal One, Heathrow Airport, in London. The international airport handles about 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day.
Kirsty Wigglesworth-AP
April 15
Stranded passengers at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Norway, where flights were also disrupted. Shutdowns and cancellations due to the volcano in Iceland spread to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.
Larsen, Hakon Mosvold-AP
April 15
A passenger takes a picture of a departures board showing canceled flights at Newcastle International Airport in England. Westerly winds forced smoke and ash from the Iceland volcano to blow toward northern Europe, include Britain, which is about 1,200 miles away.
Scott Heppell-AP
April 15, 2010
Passengers wait with their luggage as their flights have been canceled at Newcastle International Airport in England.
Scott Heppell-AP
April 15, 2010
Highway 1, the road that goes around Iceland, was cut off by flood waters caused by the volcanic eruption.
Icleandic Coast Guard-Reuters
April 14, 2010
The eruption, which partially melted a glacier, set off a major flood that threatened to damage Iceland's roads and bridges. It also forced hundreds to evacuate from a thinly populated area.
Icelandic Coast Guard-Reuters
April 14, 2010
Tourists gather to watch lava spurt out of the Fimmvorduhals volcano near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier about nearly 80 miles east of the capital of Reykjavik.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 27, 2010
The volcano eruption forced hundreds of people to flee their nearby homes, fearing it could set off an even larger volcano.
Fiór Kjartansson-AFP/Getty Images
March 21, 2010
Iceland lies on a volcanic hot spot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is prone to eruptions, although most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to life or property. The last eruption in Iceland took place in 2004.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 27, 2010
The last time there was an eruption near the 100-square-mile Eyjafjallajokull glacier was in 1821, and that was a "lazy" eruption -- it moved slowly and continuously for two years.
Fiór Kjartansson-AFP/Getty Images
March 21, 2010
Tourists gather to witness and take photos of the debris from the eruption.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 27, 2010
Scientists are concerned that this eruption could trigger the nearby Karla volcano, which lies under the thick Myrdalsjokull icecap, and could cause flooding. But like earthquakes, scientists say it is hard to predict the exact timing and intensity.
Ragnar Axelsson-AFP/Getty Images
March 21, 2010
Police in Iceland estimate that about 25,000 people have visited the site in recent days.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 27, 2010
Volcanic eruptions, common throughout Iceland's history, are often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth's plates move and when magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 22, 2010
When the volcano began to erupt March 21, officials notified residents between the farming village of Hvolsvollur and the fishing village of Vik, about 100 miles southeast of Reykjavik, via phone messages, urging them to evacuate.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 21, 2010
When the volcano began to erupt March 21, officials notified residents between the farming village of Hvolsvollur and the fishing village of Vik, about 100 miles southeast of Reykjavik, via phone messages, urging them to evacuate.
Halldor Kolbeins-AFP/Getty Images
March 21, 2010
This aerial photo shows the molten lava as it vents from a rupture near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier.
Ragnar Axelsson-AP
Gallery Credits:
Producer, Photo Editor Stephen Cook
Text Editor Alicia Cypress
