The power and wrath of Eyjafjallajökull came into dramatic clarity this weekend as the clouds parted for the first time since the glacier-topped volcano threw world air travel into turmoil.
Fresh eruptions thrust new torrents of molten rock through the shattered ice sheets in the mountain crater, spewing a towering wall of ash, dust and steam high into the air.
Iceland, Europe's youngest country, sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge fault line between two great shifting tectonic plates and the primal landscape of glacial valleys, snowy volcanoes and bubbling geysers is still being shaped by these explosive forces deep below the surface.
From the hot tubs outside the log cabins of the Hotel Ranga, a staging post for coastguard pilots, volcanologists and amateur enthusiasts, this looks like the greatest show on earth right now.
Indeed, when the first fissure opened a few weeks ago, creating scenic lava flows down the mountain, Iceland briefly gained its latest tourist attraction, as The Sunday Telegraph reported last week.
But the display of natural force that has unfolded in recent days has brought misery to millions of stranded passengers, raised concerns about the economic impact of a protracted disruption of international travel and forced hundreds of locals to evacuate their homes.
"This is not even a major eruption, so it is startling to see the impact it has had," said Matthew Jones, a British glacier expert who monitors volcanic activity at the Icelandic meteorological office.
Eyjafjallajökull is indeed not one of the biggest or most volatile of Iceland's 22 active volcanoes. But the precedents suggest that Britain and its European neighbours could face the fall-out for weeks or months to come.
Hidden from the our view by the mushroom of volcanic debris lies an even greater threat, the much larger crater of nearby Katla – named for its ferocity after a powerful witch in an ancient Icelandic saga.
Eyjafjallajökull has only erupted three times since the Vikings settled the island in the ninth century, most recently nearly two centuries ago when it blew intermittently for 14 months in the early 1820s– an alarming enough prospect for air traffic across the Atlantic.
And each occasion, it has been followed within months or a year or so by a major eruption at Katla. That volcano has also blown another 20 or so times in its own right, on average once every 60 to 80 years – so another is long overdue as it last exploded in 1918.
That eruption dwarfed what the world has seen from Eyjafjallajökull in recent days, producing about 10 times as much molten rock and throwing ash an estimated 60,000 ft into the sky.
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