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Volcano erupts in Iceland, hundreds evacuated

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G

GillianSeed79

Member
Stupid question: If the eruption continues for a month, does that mean no air travel for a month? If so that's crazy. How big was this eruption? I thought volcanoes erupted all time, but I've never heard of an entire continent being affected. I mean I thought that only happened with Krakatoa type mega eruptions. Also what happens to all that volcanic ash in the atmosphere? Is this something that could like affect the weather or sunlight or anything. Again, sorry for the stupid questions.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
It depends on the weather Gillian. The airflow over Europe at the moment is such that ash from the volcano - or the risk from it - is readily dispersed across north europe. It's unlikely such an airflow would persist for a month however. So if the eruption continued, the impact on air travel in this way would likely be periodic, not persistent, depending on the weather.

This is apparently a relatively small eruption. But it's producing quite a lot of ash. The March eruption was apparently a lava flow eruption - not so much ash but more lava. This one is less lava (or none I believe), but explosive ash production.

As for what happens to the ash in the atmosphere...it'll eventually disperse if the eruption stops or the weather changes and stops 'refueling' the ash currently over Northern Europe. Or it might come down with rain. But right now it's quite dry over Europe and the airflow is very static, so it just stays up there. If there in sufficient quantity it can produce more colourful sunsets and things. If it settles it can leave a film of dust, weird smells etc. It's not enough though to change the weather (or so they say)...it's not like it's blocking out the sun or anything, the dust over Europe is pretty much invisible to the eye away from the volcano. Indeed, the weather here right now is beautiful.

But yeah, it is quite surprising and amazing the effect a relatively small eruption can have over such a large area with the 'right' weather pattern.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
With the weather clearing up the views of the volcano are quite spectacular now. Particularly from the Vodafone vantage point:

http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

Really beautiful place.

2m3odtz.png
 
J

Jasup

Member
gofreak said:
This is apparently a relatively small eruption. But it's producing quite a lot of ash. The March eruption was apparently a lava flow eruption - not so much ash but more lava. This one is less lava (or none I believe), but explosive ash production.
Click to expand...
Isn't the main difference with these eruptions is that while the current one is happening under the glacier's ice sheet the last one was on clear ground? At least the news told me that the added water vapour from the ice is an important factor with the ash production in this case.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Jasup said:
Isn't the main difference with these eruptions is that while the current one is happening under the glacier's ice sheet the last one was on clear ground? At least the news told me that the added water vapour from the ice is an important factor with the ash production in this case.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the March eruptions had laving spilling over and flowing away. But I think this one is about the melt water flowing into the magma, causing explosions and the big ash production you have now.

edit - by the way, British Airways has cancelled short haul flights until Monday at earliest. I'm supposed to be flying with another airline from Dublin to Heathrow tomorrow....they're not cancelling even though Ryanair has and BA has, so I can't do anything to make alternative arrangements :| Until they can cancel your flight you can't change it (for free) or get a refund.
 
C

cloudwalking

300chf ain't shit to me
Chittagong said:
I'm starting to look like a hobo now. I packed only one day worth of gear with me to Finland but I'll probably end up being a week at least. Will need to buy clothes, razor etc.

Luckily should be able to expense that and I'm in an awesome hotel, so besides not seeing my wife and Helsinki being boring, I'm ok.
Click to expand...

yeah i'm pretty much in the same situation. i didn't bring many clothes with me either and i might have to go shopping for food and toiletries today. i really miss my husband too.

my company has been great, though. i can eat and drink and it's all paid for, each day i am stuck here my they are paying as a work day, and i got upgraded to an apartment room with a kitchen, living room and a washing machine :D i also get extra days off from work if this should happen to drag on into the work week.

so i'm better off than many people are, but i still really want to get home.
 
C

cloudwalking

300chf ain't shit to me
cork is cool! it's just hard to plan my day when i have to be on the phone trying to get the travel agency for hours at a time :( i am just not getting through and i don't have a hope of it until monday it seems...
 
D

DrM

Redmond's Baby
Airspace closed:
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK

Partial closures:
Belarus: No flights between 7,000-11,000m (23,000-36,000 ft)
Croatia: (North-western airspace closed)
France (northern airspace, with Paris airports closed until 1200 GMT Saturday)
Italy (northern airspace closed until 1800 GMT Saturday)
Lithuania (air traffic control leaving decision to fly to individual companies)
Norway (limited flights in north)
Serbia

Flights operating:
Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey

Eruption today is less intense for now, but no steam, all ash
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Paris airports are to remain closed until at least 6am GMT Monday. A fairly big extension of their closure.
 
J

jepense

Member
gofreak said:
Yeah, the March eruptions had laving spilling over and flowing away. But I think this one is about the melt water flowing into the magma, causing explosions and the big ash production you have now.
Click to expand...
Yes, the eruption is under an ice sheet some 200 m thick, apparently, and the 1000 C magma makes the water evaporate explosively. Even if the eruption continues, it may exhaust the ice from the immediate surroundings and build walls to prevent further meltwater flowing in. That would stop the ash production. But even then, if another opening emerges somewhere else, the ash production would resume. Katla, which is feared to be triggered by Eyjafjallajökull, is bigger and under 400 m of ice. :p
 
Tieno

Tieno

Member
jepense said:
Yes, the eruption is under an ice sheet some 200 m thick, apparently, and the 1000 C magma makes the water evaporate explosively. Even if the eruption continues, it may exhaust the ice from the immediate surroundings and build walls to prevent further meltwater flowing in. That would stop the ash production. But even then, if another opening emerges somewhere else, the ash production would resume. Katla, which is feared to be triggered by Eyjafjallajökull, is bigger and under 400 m of ice. :p
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I bet you copy-pasted that!
 
T

The Orange

Member
Ah, so much for my vacation next week!

And yeah, the thread title is comparable to having "Fire in one of twin towers" 2 days after 9/11.
 
J

jepense

Member
Tieno said:
I bet you copy-pasted that!
Click to expand...
No I didn't. I speak Swedish (which is somewhat related to Icelandic) and have been to Iceland... The name doesn't even have their special characters eth and thorn. :lol
Tip: The volcano is named Eyjafjöll (edit: Eyja is probably just a name, and guessing from Swedish, fjöll should be 'mount') and jökull is glacier.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
The surveillance flight over the volcano this afternoon has been postponed by the coastguard. They were hoping to see how much ice and magma is there to try and determine how long this will continue. Apparently the amount of ash in the plumes has increased so far today.

The Irish met office has a very pessimistic outlook on weather patterns for the rest of the week...they say that at the moment it looks like there won't be a change in airflow that would take the ash away from Europe well into next week. They expect atlantic weather systems to push any continuing plumes up toward the north pole, but that they won't arrive until Friday at the earliest.. Friday's kind of far away though...accuracy probably deteriorates after a couple of days so things could change.
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
Goldrusher said:
Still no title change ?

Simply add ", European airports closed, millions stranded"
Click to expand...


This. This is pretty much the most severe traffic chaos to hit Europe since... well, ever. Much worse than 9/11.

If this drags on the effects on economy will be catastrophic.
 
B

Banjo Tango

Member
Canceled our France tickets, heading to Montreal and Quebec City as our backup vacation. It has been suggested that if we get sufficiently plowed, we might THINK we made it to Paris.

Hope things get less sucky for those stranded...
 
O

okno

Member
cloudwalking said:
you should hear the news reporters who try to pronounce it!
Click to expand...

It´s actually pretty easy to pronounce. It's just ey-ya-fya-tla-yuh-kutl (the double L produces a sound similar to the "tly" in "exactly," just minus the "y.")

And jepense (hvað seygir þú?) has it right. Eyja is "island," fjalla means "mountains," and jökull is glacier.

Trust me. Eyjafjallajökull isn´t one of the hard words to pronounce. We got some doozies we´re just waiting to unleash upon the world.

(for reference the eth and thorn characters he mentioned are Ð and Þ, respectively.)
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Latest VAAC advisory concurs - Europe am screwed total:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/data/VAG_1271508253.png

Forecasts a significant expansion of the risk area up to 20000ft, between 20000 and 35000ft and the reappearance of the risk area over 35000ft pushing down from the north (covering the north of scotland by 6am tomorrow).

Subject to change of course, but probably the worst forecast so far from them.

News stations are full of chatter of supermarkets running out of fresh fruit and veg on Monday or Tuesday. And the economic impact now...on airlines, and whether some already fragile airlines might be pushed over the brink, if governments will have to bank-style bailouts, knock-on effects for things like the taxi industry etc. etc. (although a few taxi people are getting big fare journeys across Europe, many more are suffering a huge reduction in business because no one is going to airports).
 
Forsete

Forsete

Gold Member
FLASH: Just heard a small Cessna fly over my house (south sweden). Though they should be safe, flying low and slow.

Damn, should have been a pilot. Charging rich businessmen 10 000 dollars per minute to fly them back in a small aircraft. :D
 
J

jepense

Member
okno said:
And jepense (hvað seygir þú?) has it right. Eyja is "island," fjalla means "mountains," and jökull is glacier.
Click to expand...
Aha, Iceland GAF.
hvað seygir þú is 'how are you' right? Didn't know eyja means 'island'. But then island is 'ö' in Swedish, so that's pretty difficult to guess from there.

I've understood the current eruption is not that big of an issue to the local people except for the flooding. What if Katla goes off and the winds turn towards Reykjavik, would that be dangerous (health risk, damages to infrastructure)?

Forsete said:
FLASH: Just heard a small Cessna fly over my house (south sweden). Though they should be safe, flying low and slow.

Damn, should have been a pilot. Charging rich businessmen 10 000 dollars per minute to fly them back in a small aircraft. :D
Click to expand...
In Finland, you were allowed to fly small non-jet planes on Friday, but now even planes with piston engines are not allowed to fly. Only gliders and hot air balloons.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
miserabile visu said:
Propeller planes work right?
Click to expand...

I think I heard that they don't...

I heard a plane drone overhead early this morning but no idea what it was. Might have been an army or observation plane.

I'm so pissed off. I could have gone down south this weekend, to a beach house. The weather is gorgeous, and I'm stuck up here in Dublin waiting on news for a flight I'm supposed to be on tomorrow that pretty much everyone except my airline knows won't fly..
 
Jex

Jex

Member
Well it doesn't look like anyone I know is going to be able to get around anywhere for awhile. This is a pretty weird turn of events.
 
J

jepense

Member
miserabile visu said:
Propeller planes work right?
Click to expand...
I believe the risk is smaller than in a jet, but since also a piston engine can suck in the ash and get damaged, it is a risk nonetheless. If the ash was higher than flight altitude, then it would be ok.
Well it doesn't look like anyone I know is going to be able to get around anywhere for awhile. This is a pretty weird turn of events.
Click to expand...
As far as massive disasters go, it is a bit weird. Nobody got hurt (though there is some property damage), but there is big "no trespassing" sign in the sky.
 
W

Walshicus

Member
pringles said:
lol, mods don't care about what happens in europe.
Click to expand...
Someone make a Gypsy comment... ;)


This is having a major impact where I work - the short term impact is probably greater than 11/09/01. Luckily this isn't going to reduce demand for air travel, just shift it around for a bit and lumber airlines with one-off costs, so the longer term may not be that bad.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
UK airspace closed til 7am tomorrow.

Irish airspace closed til 1pm tomorrow.

My flight? 2.40pm tomorrow :p
 
LQX

LQX

Member
Why is a title change needed as if it's something major or dire? It's not like thousands of GAFer's are stranded or even traveling.
 
G

GasProblem

Member
LQX said:
Why is a title change needed as if it's something major or dire? It's not like thousands of GAFer's are stranded or even traveling.
Click to expand...

Something needs to affect thousand of GAFer's to be major? Oke.

:lol
 
T

TylerD

Member
LQX said:
Of course not but some are trying to make this seem more dire than it is.
Click to expand...

The grounding of tens of thousands of flights (per day), great economic loss and the impact on millions of people is not dire enough? :/

There are also weddings in the US that are going without certain flowers that would be flown in from the Netherlands! Have you no decency?!?!
I don't give a shit about the flowers.
 
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