This image, acquired on 15 April 2010 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth.
An enlarged view and story follows.
It seems the Volcano has accomplished what the nutballs of “Plane Stupid” could not – shut down UK airports, including Heathrow.
Flights have been disrupted across northern Europe by volcanic ash drifting south and east from Iceland.
Airspace was closed or flights cancelled in countries including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and France.
The ash, which can damage aeroplane engines, was produced by a volcanic eruption under a glacier in Iceland.
Flooding was reported as the glacier melted, and up to 800 people were evacuated from the area on Wednesday.
By Thursday afternoon, the UK had shut its airspace and other countries, from Belgium to Scandinavia, were in the process of following suit.
‘Wait and see’
UK airspace was shut down to all but emergency flights from midday (1100 GMT) on Thursday to 0700 BST (0600 GMT) on Friday, at the earliest. It was also closed in Ireland.
“Volcanic ash represents a significant safety threat to aircraft,” said the UK’s Air Traffic Control Service (Nats).
Airspace closed:
Oslo airport, which is Norway’s largest, was closed on Thursday morning, meaning Norwegian airspace was completely closed.
Belgium, Sweden and Denmark announced they would be shutting their entire airspace, northern Finland was closed and the Netherlands was being closed progressively.
French aviation officials said on Thursday afternoon that the main airports in Paris and other airports in the north of the country were to be closed.
more here
Seems to be an eruption of entertaining posts. The real question is, are there enough virgins in Iceland to appease this god, or will they have to ship some there?
Michael (11:37:57) wrote: “Iceland takes a dump on the UK, literally. First they gave the banksters there the middle finger, now this. ROTFLMAO. Yes, what comes around goes around. It’s Karma.”
Sort of seems that way. Except that the Icelanders are getting the worst of it.
jeroen (11:37:57) : “When is the best moment to see the asscloud???”
Usually right after you hear the noise.
Kitefreak (12:25:20) wrote: “The BBC are exactly the type of Big Brother-controlled state media apparatus which George Orwell described in his book ‘1984′.”
Indeed. But because they are becoming so obviously ridiculous, and because of their accents, I call them Monty Python’s Ministry of Truth.
John from CA (12:41:11) wrote “The ash is tough on the lungs… I hope it doesn’t hit populated areas.”
Well, little too late for that hope.
Warmest volcanic season on record. Definitely.
“Hernando
The volcano erupted because the glacier was melting. If the glacier had remained solid, this most likely would not have happened, ”
Uh are you serious ? I sincerely hope that yours was an attempt at humor.
Anyway, the time might be right for a sacrifice. One blowhard comes to mind.
@ur momisugly Agust H. Bjarnason (12:23:09) :
Something new is happening at this moment.
About half an hour ago a giant water surge (jökulhlaup) was seen coming from the glacier. Much larger than yesterday. People are being evaucated…
——————————-
You’re right, Bro. It is intensifying. Be safe and good luck.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_iceland_volcano
“A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6-km (3.7 mile) high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday.
The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air and showed no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity, said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland.
“The seismographs are showing that since this morning the intensity of the eruption seems to be growing,” he said.”
Only the UK Met Office could publish a graphic where the colour key bears no relationship whatsoever to the facts on the ground, er, sorry, in the air.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/europe/volcano/iceland.html
Using alarmist logic, let me explain:
It is all part of the Icelanders undeclared war against the UK:
I) The Icelanders won the ‘Cod War’ in the 1970s against the UK by stopping the British fishing fleet plundering their fish stocks.
ii) Icelandic banks then stole/lost over $3 billion in British savings deposits in the latest economic crisis.
iii) Britain’s Gordon Brown enacted a terrorism law to force the Icelanders to give the cash back.
iv) Icelanders have a referendum and give Brown the finger.
v) Now comes the ‘hockey stick’ part – there apparently is no ‘c’ in the Icelandic language, so instead of sending the UK cash, the Icelanders sent ash.
I find it ironic, that after Icelands economic woes, the land itself expels hot gas and ash in a violent geological event. Anthromorphic personification and very poor correlation I know.
Carry that over to England, and we should have lava running through the city of London, and the Yellow stone mega/ultra/hyper volcano popping its top in the States.
At least the AGW crowd can’t blame us for volcanism…..wait for it…..
KLA (11:34:57) :
“H.R. (10:48:19) :
…My only claim to expertise on volcanos is I know that throwing virgins in to placate the gods has been proven to reduce population.
No it hasn’t. Firstly there has never been a large enough pool of virgins in the human population. Secondly their status is mostly a temporary one anyway, and has been too rarely ended by volcanism to have a measurable effect.”
I must defend my thesis. It reduces the population by at least 1 (or more, depending on how many virgins are running about).
Flash of insight! It might have something to do with why the Cook expedition found the Tahitian women so “friendly.” None of the women wanted to be the only virgin around when a volcano was acting up.
JIT (just in time) for a (face-saving) “strategic retreat” –
Warmists exiting stage left … they will have managed to ‘beat the (offstage) hook’ by a safe margin.
.
.
This stuff is sulphurous. It must be that old beezlebub* coming to collect his own. We may soon be Goreless, Brownless, Milibandless, Boxerless, Pachauriless, etc. (We should be so lucky!)
* post-normal spelling
The real irony of this will be that the climate (can’t)forecasters will claim that the reason it hasn’t warmed is because of the particulates from the volcano and in doing so they will underline the fact that the level of particulates dramatically decreased as a result of clean air acts in the 1970 resulting in cleaner “Warmer” climate.
It will also highlight the fact that these environmentalists who were fear-mongering about a nuclear winter caused by air particulates in the 1970s have the solution to any global warming right in their hands.
And if the climate forecasters don’t believe nuclear weapons could stop all this global warming hysteria in its track. May I suggest taking anyone who still believes this global warming rubbish to a small uninhabited island where we will duly let off a few dozen nuclear devices and suddenly global will no longer be a problem!
Sunfighter (12:36:55) :
I dont get it. Why would a thin ash cloud bearly reaching the northern part of scotland shut down airports in southern england and northern europe? I plead ignorance on this topic..so im wondering why its such big news?
As a couple of commenters have already mentioned, volcanic ash is abrasive — it will “frost” aircraft windshields (okay, windscreens for the UK folks) and erode the turbine blades in jet engines. If it’s thick enough, it can also clog the intakes or jam the rotating portions of the compressor sections, causing compressor stalls (the turbine engine equivalent of a backfire, but violent enough to cause internal damage to the engine). The ash from violent eruptions is also as corrosive to aircraft-grade aluminum as salt — the helicopters flying search and rescue missions during the Mt. St. Helens eruption were all grounded for structural inspections for several weeks afterwards.
@ur momisugly Hernando (10:56:22) : Y’all come back when you’ve graduated from grade school.
This requires a massive sacrifice of virgins.
Perhaps we could borrow those dedicated and reserved for the Islamic Jihadists.
There is a theory – and unfortunately I cannot remember the reference for it – that Iceland’s volcanoes were one of the principal reasons for the intensity of the Pleistocene Ice Age.
About 70% of Iceland is less than 3.1 million years old and the country is believed to produce around one third of the world’s annual lava at the present time.
However, there currently are no active flood basalt systems in Iceland, but there have been a lot in recent geological time. Hopefully, there will be none in the immediate future.
15 April: UK Financial Times: Police quiz climate change sceptics
By James Boxell and Fiona Harvey
Charles Rotter, a San Francisco-based blogger who moderates one of the first sites to have published the leaked data, has also been approached by Norfolk police because of his submission of an FOI request.
Local police are being helped by officers from the National Domestic Extremism Team, leading the climate sceptics to question the involvement of a unit set up to counter home-grown terrorists and radicals. A unit spokesman said the two officers were assigned because of their expertise in computer forensics and because they had experience of dealing with environmental activists…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b942edba-47f6-11df-b998-00144feab49a.html
How can we calculate when this volcano belches up as much ash and pollution as all the autos for all time have contributed.
Boy I would hate to see a really big volcano go off in Europe. The silence can’t last forever.
Janice (11:10:05) :
“kadaka (10:10:59) : Figure everything together, and it’s clear “the Mother Earth that loves me” is the one I should fear the most!”
You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all
You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it till the petals fall
You always break the kindest heart
With a hasty word you can’t recall
So If I broke your heart last night
It’s because I love you most of all
In my head I hear this though…
You always hurt (Bang aaaagghhh) the one you love (owwwwwwuuwww)
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all (bang ahh bang)
You always take (slide whistle) the sweetest rose (sniff sniff sniff sniff)
And crush it till the petals fall (crash)
You always break (carunch) the kindest heart (thump thump)
With a hasty word you can’t recall (where are you you old bat)
So If I broke (carunch) your heart last night (crumpling paper)
It’s because I love you most of all (flairing finish)
Thanks Spike 🙂
The eruption will cause some ocean acidification and be blamed on man. Is there anything that is not man’s fault?
Bill,
I think Sunfighter’s question was not why is ash harmful, but why are they shutting down so much traffic if the plume is only hitting the north of the United Kingdom. The trans-alantic flights are stopped because the normal routes fly over Iceland or near to it. The inter-euorpean traffic could be shut down just due to uncertainty in the location of the plume and its intensity in various places. Not sure how well they can be tracked.
Sunfighter,
Fine volcanic ash is extremely nasty stuff, particularly in the quantities kicked out by a volcano having issues.
I was given a small bottle (1/2-1oz) of Mt. St. Helens ash during a visit after the eruption. Despite never opening the bottle, EVERYTHING in my suitcase was coated with a gritty film of volcanic ash by the time I got home. Clothes, shoes, toothbrush, toiletries everything, and it was impossible to remove. Had to dump the lot.
Avoid it like the plague, it get in anything.
e.g. see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9
MattB (14:29:26) :
Another Spike classic:
If I give my heart to you…
I’ll have none and you’ll have two..
Stephan:
Don’t know about volcanoes, but number & intensity of quakes recently is about normal – http://geology.rockbandit.net/2010/03/01/has-there-been-an-increase-in-earthquake-activity/
Hernando (10:56:22) :
“The volcano erupted because the glacier was melting. If the glacier had remained solid, this most likely would not have happened, because the environment above and around the volcano would not have changed. This is a perfect example of how global warming can trigger scary events that accelerate the process out of control. Now, surely other glaciers are melting faster because of this, thinning the barriers above other underground volcanoes.”
=================================
I hope to God you mean this in jest.
If so, it’s very funny sarcasm.
But if you are serious, that is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life!
Either way it’s very funny… just that the first way we’re laughing with you, but the second way we’re laughing at you! LOL
I hope for your sake it’s the first. Cheers!
Chris
Norfolk Virginia USA
Hopefully the likely cooling that will result will bury the AGW nonsense. When the masses are freezing their butts off it will take a lot of convincing that the world is really getting warmer.
Hernando (10:56:22) :
Gordon Bennett! Hernando – tell me you are not serious. Please?