The eruption of a volcano in Iceland has the skies over the UK and Europe filled with ash. Like what happened on 9/11 in the USA, planes are landing everywhere and staying out of the skies. Volcanic ash eats scours jet turbines, making in flight failure almost a certainty.
There’s a cool website called flightradar24.com which is operated by a volunteer network of aviation enthusiasts with special receivers. They describe it as:
Flightradar24.com shows live airplane traffic from different parts around the world. The technique to receive flight information from airplanes is called ADS-B. That means the Flightradar24.com can only show information about airplanes equipped with ADS-B transponders. Today about 60% of the passenger airplanes and only a small amount of military and private airplanes have an ADS-B transponder. Flightradar24.com has a network of about 100 ADS-B receivers around the world that receives the information from airplanes with ADS-B and sends this information to a server, and then displays this information on a map on Flightradar24.com. Only airplanes within the coverage area of the 100 receivers are visible.
Watch as airplanes disappear from the skies over the UK and Europe. Here’s about 8AM PST. Blue X’s are receivers.
Two hours later:
…and at the time of this posting, 2PM PST, with a wider view:
And the ash continues to spread:
An earlier poster stated that FOE were celebrating because a dayfull of evil man-made Co2 thro’ aviation activities had been gained.
Ignoring the sulphates contribution to ocean “acidification” and other environmentally disruptive contributions from said, but generally unpronounceable, eruption does anyone have any idea of how much of a daily diet of dioxide of carbon is estimated to be added to our ailing and asthmatic atmosphere?
Is it greater or less than that from human induced aviation transport underpinning society (HIATUS) ?
Perhaps though, and I’m suspecting this more and more with each day that passes, that irrespective of what that objective, pernickety and pesky handmaiden Science aka Mathematics says, the faux environmental extremist attitude that eshews logic is still streamrollering to destruction everything that true environmental heroes have striven to do!
False friends do greater harm than eager enemies!
In short, forget Hiatus, just remember or think on, that they HATE US!
Mike Jonas (17:19:55) :
Anyone know what the VEI of this one is?
2? 3, maybe?
This eruption is to date only sending ash up 20K to 30K feet so although it will have an effect on conditions where aircraft fly, it is not sending particulates or gasses high enough to have an impact on temperatures. It’s those explosive subduction volcanoes that send ash and gas into the stratosphere that have been shown to effect climate – and then only for a year or two.
Icelandic volcanism is know to have some pretty nasty chemistry though, such as fluorine gas.
It’s worse than we thought!
“Volcano could mean cooling, acid rain”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36556083/ns/us_news-environment/
Isn’t the earth trying to say, “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa?” Seems that the eruption is intensifying. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_iceland_volcano
You have to be sorry for all the tourists and businesses affected by this. I just went on a trip where my flights were interrupted and it was no fun. As an ex airline pilot you would expect me to take delays in stride but, I am a sorry passenger. I can’t imagine being stuck somewhere I didn’t want to be for 3 or 4 days. Now, stick me in Buffalo Wyoming that long–NICE.
So does anyone know if the 535 AD start of The Dark Ages when Roman records say it started with cold and a dark sky (where you could only dimly see the sun) might have had any eruptions in Iceland?…
Just wonderin’…
Francisco (14:33:36) : The flanks of a major Coronal Mass Ejection – a massive solar
What? the sun being active? How novel! 😉
Sounds interesting…
Stan (14:54:52) :
“Prop planes don’t have a problem – time to get those DC3’s out of mothballs.”
Ran an Air Charter outfit during the1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens it was not a fun time. Plus I had to fly USGS and Army Corps of Engineers around that still belching monster.
Lots of Business for overhaul shops and Prop shops that year…
With all this going on, now we have the sun horsing around. See: http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/pics/j/Jo-Dahlmans-jo1_1271181770_med.jpg
Cam (15:08:07) : We are very overdue for some decent volcanic activity. The planet hasnt been much fun for vulcanologists the past decade or so!
Be careful what you ask for… Earlier today the California earthquake chart had a count of 2044 quakes on it…
As I type this, it’s “only” 1977 quakes:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/32.42.-125.-115.gif
and we just had a 4.9 in Utah. Yes, Utah. About as far from the pacific plate subduction as you could want. Oh, and Redoubt in Alaska was starting to grumble again, last I checked the volcano status report:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/index.cfm
(Has 18 listed as presently doing something of significance…)
Eyjafjallajokull
‘bless you!’
Hopefully this eruption and the meteorite in the Midwest will get CAGW followers to realise there are more serious natural threats to humanity than man’s CO2 emissions.
I’m allowed to hope ain’t I.
Oh, and check out Alaska on this one:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/index.gif
The whole south side is shaking…
Quoting: Dave Wendt (15:31:37) :
“But more seriously, does anyone know how high in the atmosphere these plumes are rising?”
Commenting:
The estimates I’ve seen are from 4 km to 8 km (about 13,500 ft to 27000 ft). That is to say, about where airliners fly, on average. Particulates, I would imagine, much higher.
On another subject:
Volcanoes also put out enormous amounts of CO2. And the “go-to” CO2 monitor is on an island with an active volcano and another “very active” volcano. I’ve always been puzzled about that.
Methow Ken (17:19:44) :
“…humans: breathing ash in any significant quantities not a good plan.”
Pliny the Elder died from it during the Vesuvius eruption in 79
I remeber the eruptions of the ’70’s on Iceland. The Icelanders faught back with pumps and sea water. They stopped the lava flows, eventually. I also recall, vividly, the erruption of Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand in 1995, spitting chuncks the size of houses. But there, the flights seemed not to be that much disrupted, they just flew around it. Some of my work mates at the time actiually took off in their cars, drove the 450kms or there abouts, to watch it!!! Crazy Kiwis!
Slightly O.T
New Scientist 2008
“A warmer world could be a more explosive one. Global warming is having a much more profound effect than just melting ice caps – it is melting magma too.
Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland, and is disappearing at a rate of 5 cubic kilometres per year.
Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland have calculated the effects of the melting on the crust and magma underneath.
They say that, as the ice disappears, it relieves the pressure exerted on the rocks deep under the ice sheet, increasing the rate at which it melts into magma. An average of 1.4 cubic kilometres has been produced every century since 1890, a 10% increase on the background rate.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13583-melting-ice-caps-may-trigger-more-volcanic-eruptions.html
Sigh,…now AGW causes volcanoes…..
E.M.Smith (18:32:58) :
So does anyone know if the 535 AD start of The Dark Ages when Roman records say it started with cold and a dark sky (where you could only dimly see the sun) might have had any eruptions in Iceland?…
————–
E.M. Smith – I’m a big fan of yours! From pedantics-R-us, however, the term ‘Dark Ages’ was a masterful piece of propaganda invented by the humanists of the Renaissance to describe the less enlightened age between the Renaissance and the Classical period when academic learning of the non-religious kind went into a steep decline in Europe. The Renaissance con-artists wanted to show how much better they were than those who went before.
Their label shows the typical arrogance of the Roman snobbery against work and anything work related, because Dark Age artisans built the foundations of the modern industrial west. Their thorough adaptation of existing technologies (eg water mills) and invention of new technologies maximized productivity.
As romantic and apt as it might seem, there was no volcanic eruption or darkened skies that heralded the beginning of this era, which historians often date from anywhere between 450 and 520 A.D. However, one the factors that contributed to the fall of the Roman empire and the beginning of the Dark Ages was the first outbreaks of the bubonic plague: the Athenian plague of 430 B.C. and the Justinianic plague of 542 A.D. These plagues wiped out conservatively around 40% of the population, which is worse than the Black Death of 1350, which wiped out a quarter of the European population. The loss of such a huge sector of humanity led to labour shortages and the de-skilling of European knowledge-workers and experts in a culture where much learning was experiential and word-of-mouth. Shipping and ship-building almost disappeared, for example, and huge sectors of the Roman-European economy vanished, as did most trade and trades, for that matter. This led to a huge drop in the standard of living, which would also feed the Dark Age label. One wonders if we are facing something similar due to the loons in power and the environmental fundamentalists…
I tell my students that Road Warrior (which I dragged my then-boyfriend to see, not aware of what genre of film I was about to experience) is based on a vision of the world returning to the Dark Ages. Perhaps prophetic? The focus of all the violent encounters and battles is ownership and control of oil and energy.
Re: John from CA (17:09:07) :
“Any idea why there is so much SO2 over the Arctic?”
No, but I think it might be an artifact from the satellite’s viewing angle.
So, will we see a CO2 spike on Maona Loa?
When its finished, could’nt we put all our old carbon in the hole?
Well…I’m stuck in Johannesburg because of this volcano in Iceland. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam is saying that they don’t expect to be open today, but they are keeping an eye on it.
Well, I am pilot for over 35 years now and I have never ever experienced this:
NOTAM (notice to airmen) for the Amsterdam FIR:
TIL 1004161600EST
DUE TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN ICELAND AND THE RESULTING ASHCLOUDS IN
THE AMSTERDAM FIR, ALL CIVIL IFR AND VFR OPERATIONS ARE PROHIBITED.
POLICE, SAR AND HEMS FLIGHTS ARE EXEMPTED. SFC/FL245.
: NOTAM EH/A0422/10
There entire airspace, even for small piston aircraft, is closed.
Dave Wendt (15:31:37) :
Come on guys, you’re all missing the point here. Obviously expansionary heat stress on the Earth’s crust generated by AGW has caused this eruption and the veritable swarm of major earthquakes of recent months. Gaia is angry and is reeking her vengeance.
rbateman (15:46:07) :
Dave Wendt (15:31:37) :
How does anyone really know what stresses caused the eruption?
It could just as easily be a weakened magnetic field letting things go.
We should look for hastily chiseled messages in Pompei and Herculaneum for telltale clues.
In the words of one my childhood cartoon heroes, Foghorn Leghorn, “it was a joke, son”
Fitzy (19:46:49) :
Slightly O.T
New Scientist 2008
“A warmer world could be a more explosive one. Global warming is having a much more profound effect than just melting ice caps – it is melting magma too.
Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland, and is disappearing at a rate of 5 cubic kilometres per year.
Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland have calculated the effects of the melting on the crust and magma underneath.
They say that, as the ice disappears, it relieves the pressure exerted on the rocks deep under the ice sheet, increasing the rate at which it melts into magma. An average of 1.4 cubic kilometres has been produced every century since 1890, a 10% increase on the background rate.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13583-melting-ice-caps-may-trigger-more-volcanic-eruptions.html
Sigh,…now AGW causes volcanoes…..
I guess it’s official, satirizing these people is now completely impossible!