The volcano, situated on the Eastern Volcanic zone in southern Iceland, began erupting lava on 20 March 2010.A second eruption then began beneath the ice cap near the summit of the volcano on 14 April. This eruption caused the melting of large amounts of ice, leading to flooding in southern Iceland.
Iceland lies on the Mid Atlantic Ridge, a constructive plate margin separating the North American Plate and the Eurasian plate. The two plates are moving apart due to ridge push along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. As the plates move apart, magma fills the magma chamber below Eyjafjallajokull. Several magma chambers combined producing a volume of magma below the volcano. Eyjafjallajokull is located below a glacier.
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 1920, 1612 and again from 1821 to 1823 when it caused a glacial lake outburst flood. It erupted three times in 2010—on 20 March, April–May, and June. The March event forced a brief evacuation of around 500 local people. Still, the 14 April eruption was ten to twenty times more powerful and caused substantial disruption to air traffic across Europe. It caused the cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe and to Iceland.