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[pestul]

There's been a little cluster of 4 small earthquakes at the volcano in the last 4 hours, which is more than there had been in the last day or so.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

Might be nothing, but there'd been earlier talk that seismic activity had calmed down since Wednesday.

The Iceland met office says that the eruption is continuing, with no indication that the ash production is decreasing. Eruptions are reaching heights of 4-5km (a little lower than previously) with bursts to higher altitudes occasionally.

I can't get over how big Katla is compared to this one. :S

If it went you'd probably see a plume similar to the pictures posted above.. and God knows when European air travel would resume. You'd have other things like tsunamis to be worried about too.

 

[Canova]

this is getting less and less funny.... I'm due to fly to aussie in 2 weeks.

less and less funny.

flying out from where? UK?

Can you take a train down south to Italy or Spain and fly out from there?

 

[pestul]

I already have $3500 committed for a trip to Europe (Edinburgh & Rome) for mid June.. better not fuck it up.

 

[El Papa]

Hypothetically speaking, would it be possible that a volcano cloud like this could combine with a hurricane / typhoon? That would be pretty devastating, no?

 

[Banjo Tango]

We've been planning our Paris vacation for 7 months now... of all the things for it to get canceled by!

 

[gofreak]

I think we'll be well clear of this in 2 weeks, let alone 2 months

Prevailing winds wouldn't normally bring air down from Iceland even if it did continue to erupt. If there was prolonged activity up there it's possible you could have on and off episodes as the weather allows, but I wouldn't be at all worried about flights in 2 weeks or in June. I'd be more worried just about what'll happen over the weekend.

 

[NotWii]

anyway i started looking for really epic volcano pics, would love to see something like these with my own eyes, so awe inspiring.

Here's more!

http://creativefan.com/40-breathtaking-and-incredible-volcano-photographs/

 

[mrklaw]

It doesn't need to come down here to fuck things up. Just spreading east across northern Europe screws the great circle routes to the far east

 

[MrPing1000]

Ash cloud snubs Northern Ireland.

 

[pestul]

If it continues at its present rate, I wonder how long it would take to encircle the Northern Hemisphere.

 

[Truant]

Looks like a dog on all fours taking a dump all over Europe.

 

[jepense]

I think we'll be well clear of this in 2 weeks, let alone 2 months

Maybe, but even that would be an unprecedentedly long interruption in air traffic.

If it continues at its present rate, I wonder how long it would take to encircle the Northern Hemisphere.

The ash traveled some 3000 km, I think, in a day. At 60 degrees latitude, the distance around the Earth is about 20000 km. So a week, if you assume constant speed.

 

[pestul]

Maybe, but even that would be an unprecedentedly long interruption in air traffic.

And the subsequent sporadic air travel would widely depend on weather patterns.

 

[gofreak]

Latest from UK NATS - in short, restrictions over Wales/England extended til 7am at the earliest. Northern flights may operate selectively, but Manchester is restricted again.

The cloud of volcanic ash continues to move south through the UK and the eruption in Iceland continues.

Following a review of the latest Met Office information, NATS advises that restrictions preventing flights in controlled airspace over England and Wales will remain in place until 0700 (UK time) tomorrow, Saturday 17 April, at the earliest. From 1900 (UK time) today ATC restrictions will be lifted in a large part of Scottish airspace including Scottish airports, Shetland, Orkneys and also Northern Ireland.

On this basis, North Atlantic traffic can also operate to/from points in this airspace. Please note these arrangements do not mean that all flights will operate. Anyone hoping to travel today or tomorrow should contact their airline before going to the airport.

We are looking for opportunities when the ash cloud moves sufficient for us to enable some flights to operate under individual coordination with ATC. Some aircraft were able to operate at Manchester this morning, although restrictions are now reapplied to Manchester.

We hope there may be some opportunity from the north into Newcastle after 0100 (UK time) tomorrow - Saturday. We will review further Met Office information and at 2030 (UK time) we will advise further arrangements. In general, the situation is dynamic and subject to change.

We continue to work closely with airports, airlines, and the rest of Europe to understand and mitigate the implications of the volcanic eruption.

 

[maniac-kun]

i live in germany and the airport near me in cologne was shut down the entire day its so quiet here

 

[Arcipello]

crazy stuff

 

[DrM]

Hungary will close airspace at 17.00 GMT, Austria at the same time. Other southern countires (Italy, Slovenia) could follow tommorow

 

[crispyben]

My dad's on a business trip in Hungary and Romania, and he's driving back to France since he can't fly back in time to move house this week-end. And since there's a strike at the national train company, France is a clusterfuck (as usual).

 

[Maleficence]

crazy stuff

That's great, looks like a titan from GoW3

 

[DrM]

A Belfast taxi driver was asked on Thursday by a group of businessmen to drive them to London's Heathrow airport. The 400-mile trip cost the businessmen £650 but they left him a £50 tip. :lol

Slovakia also closed airspace.

 

[NotWii]

Some experts said there could be disruption for six months as a result of contaminated air drifting over northern Europe.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...h-cloud-grounds-British-European-flights.html

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

 

[randomwab]

Ash cloud snubs Northern Ireland.

~high fives~

And what nice weather we're getting too. I went for a nice walk down to Holywood at lunch.

 

[kottila]

A Belfast taxi driver was asked on Thursday by a group of businessmen to drive them to London's Heathrow airport. The 400-mile trip cost the businessmen £650 but they left him a £50 tip. :lol

Slovakia also closed airspace.

That's nothing. John Cleese paid £3300 to be driven from Oslo to Brüssels.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Oh Iceland. Ceasing every opportunity to piss of the Europeans.

 

[Teknoman]

 

[DrM]

Romania will close airspace at 3.00 am, Slovenia will also close airspace at the same time or even earlier

 

[Kurtofan]

That's nothing. John Cleese paid £3300 to be driven from Oslo to Brüssels.

Wow :lol

 

[Forgotten_Taco]

That's nothing. John Cleese paid £3300 to be driven from Oslo to Brüssels.

What kind of tip did he leave?

 

[Numpt3]

That's nothing. John Cleese paid £3300 to be driven from Oslo to Brüssels.

the 1,500 kilometre (930 mile) drive

Bet that was fun :lol

 

[gofreak]

Whitney Houston apparently had to resort to the...err...'glamour' of Irish Ferries to get her to Dublin yesterday :lol

 

[Kurtofan]

Bet that was fun :lol

It's John Cleese we're talking about

 

[itsinmyveins]

I like that joke he told too: "How do you get God to laugh? Tell him your plans" :lol

 

[Goldrusher]

That's nothing. John Cleese paid £3300 to be driven from Oslo to Brüssels.

Volcano erupts in Iceland, hundreds evacuated --> Volcano erupts in Iceland, a third of Europe's airports closed, $5000 taxi trips

 

[rinse82]

Shit, flying from Toronto --> Amsterdam --> Barcelona 2 weeks from today for a Mediterranean cruise. This shit better be resolved by then.

 

[Lonely1]

Live in the north of england and was hoping to see some crazy looking smoke clouds way up in the sky...but i look out the window and all i see is a clear sky and sunshine

anyway i started looking for really epic volcano pics, would love to see something like these with my own eyes, so awe inspiring.

This is still king.

 

[Get'sMad]

Hopefully this thing wiped out Sigur Ros.

 

[Mr. B Natural]

This is still king.

Wow, how is that possible? What is causing the electrocution.

 

[syllogism]

Wow, how is that possible? What is causing the electrocution.

The voltage difference between ash particles and gas particles

 

[sneakypete]

This is still king.
http://www.metlin.org/content/blog/ChileanVolcanoLarge.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

I've always been of awe of that picture. Just found an article about the volcanic lightning shown there.

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-volcano-lightning.html"]Volcano Lightning[/URL]

Interesting read.

 

[syllogism]

IATA says the current restrictions are costing $200M a day, based on preliminary estimations

 

[gofreak]

Wow. Ryanair has just pretty much cancelled all their flights in Northern Europe up until 1300 on Monday.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-expects-current-flight-cancellations-to-continue

They say they're doing it to give everyone who might be affected as much notice as possible, and as much opportunity as needed to rebook on flights later in the week at no charge.

I'm starting to get distinctly worried about my Sunday flight with Aer Lingus.

 

[ATF487]

Hopefully this thing wiped out Sigur Ros.

hey FUCK YOU

 

[Ether_Snake]

FUCK YOU VOLCANO LEAVE MY VACATIONS ALONE ARGH!

I'm leaving in just over a week. Please be gone by then:| At least southern Europe is not too affected so far, but I have a stop in Munich first:|

 

[ymmv]

Wow. Ryanair has just pretty much cancelled all their flights in Northern Europe up until 1300 on Monday.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-expects-current-flight-cancellations-to-continue

They say they're doing it to give everyone who might be affected as much notice as possible, and as much opportunity as needed to rebook on flights later in the week at no charge.

I'm starting to get distinctly worried about my Sunday flight with Aer Lingus.

I had booked a flight to Oslo on Saturday for a short vacation. Not any more.

 

[jepense]

Wow. Ryanair has just pretty much cancelled all their flights in Northern Europe up until 1300 on Monday.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-expects-current-flight-cancellations-to-continue

They say they're doing it to give everyone who might be affected as much notice as possible, and as much opportunity as needed to rebook on flights later in the week at no charge.

I'm starting to get distinctly worried about my Sunday flight with Aer Lingus.

The Finnish airspace is currently scheduled to be closed until Sunday 1500. But the officials expect that the closure will continue longer than that. I'm supposed to fly next Friday, and I'm not at all sure it'll happen. I think it's a good idea from the company to set their own schedule a bit further than what would be the best case scenario, since it'll be absolute mayhem until Monday even if the flights would resume tomorrow.

edit:
So, 10000 flights are flown today in EU instead of the normal 25000 or so. So 15000 flights cancelled. If a flight has about a 100 people, that's 1,5 million trips. Some would of course be the same people due to connections, but still this hit about a million people in a single day. And that's not counting businesses that can't get stuff in or out via air mail.

 

[gofreak]

The Finnish airspace is currently scheduled to be closed until Sunday 1500. But the officials expect that the closure will continue longer than that. I'm supposed to fly next Friday, and I'm not at all sure it'll happen. I think it's a good idea from the company to set their own schedule a bit further than what would be the best case scenario, since it'll be absolute mayhem until Monday even if the flights would resume tomorrow.

For people repeatedly rebooking it definitely makes sense... it gives everyone with a flight over the weekend a fairer crack at an earlier rebooking too (since flights next week will probably be jammers with backlog).

 

[Javaman]

it happened way back in 1982 - BA 747 had all four engines cut out flying through an ash plume

luckily they managed to restart them when they cleared the cloud.



One silver lining with my family being delayed - our new bathroom might actually be finished by then

I saw a show about that flight a couple of months ago. It was a hell of an experience. Engines were blowing flames out the back, (molten volcanic ash), it looked like they were going into hyperdrive with sparks all over the outside due to the ionazation of the ash, sulfer smell and choking "smoke" inside the plane, engines that cut out and restarted once they dove (knocked the molten then cooled ash out of the engines), completely hazed cockpit windows and frontal surfaces due to the abrasion. They couldn't figure out what was happening until they landed. Crazy stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

 

[VaLiancY]

I saw a show about that flight a couple of months ago. It was a hell of an experience. Engines were blowing flames out the back, (molten volcanic ash), it looked like they were going into hyperdrive with sparks all over the outside due to the ionazation of the ash, sulfer smell and choking "smoke" inside the plane, engines that cut out and restarted once they dove (knocked the molten then cooled ash out of the engines), completely hazed cockpit windows and frontal surfaces due to the abrasion. They couldn't figure out what was happening until they landed. Crazy stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

If I was on that flight, I'd shitting bricks the size of cinder blocks.

 

[pestul]

The only good news is that it seems to be weakening slightly today. Could change again any minute.

NASA now fears outbreak of the volcano Katla
LONDON - The NASA fears that the explosion and the huge ash cloud from the volcano may Eyjafjallajökull only the harbinger of a much larger eruption of Katla volcano nearby.

According to the U.S. space agency could also mean that the volcanic activity in the area is still indefinite hold.

The Icelandic Coast Guard also reported this morning that the strength of the eruptions of the volcano under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland has declined Friday, and that the volcano is less dangerous emissions. The cloud that currently has formed a 'cleaner' composition and consists almost exclusively of water and pieces of stone. The Icelanders, however, warn that this does not mean that there is a quick end to the eruption will come.

Source: Telegraaf.nl

 

[DrEvil]

Ugh, we're supposed to fly into London May 1st (arrive the morning of the 2nd); I hope to hell this is cleared up by then.