~ ICELANDIC VOLCANO ERUPTION ~ UPDATE: IT'S STARTED AGAIN........!!

[Hattie the Hen]

This morning they have just closed most of our airports to flights here in the UK because of the fall-out of ash from the erupting Icelandic volcano......!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8621407.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8620485.stm ***Edited to add this information***

I wonder how this is going to affect the strength of sunlight we will receive this summer. Ai the moment the dust is in the high atmosphere but I wonder if we might get it falling on us later. It is certainly going to affect all of Northern Europe & probably much further away.

Nature is surely throwing a lot at us lately.......!!


Hattie

 

[boggybranch]

Hattie,

Maybe you won't be affected very long, as they expect it to cross northern UK and then on to Europe. The article "talks" like the cloud will stay together while moving across the UK, which, I reckon, is a good thing. Of course, with the gails you have, I hope they don't change the clouds path.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Mmmmm!! But the volcano is continuing to erupt..............

Actually it is quite bright & sunny where I am today.

I really feel for the Icelandic people though & especially so after their terrible economic crisis of the recent years.

Hattie

 

[Reinbeau]

Volcanoes erupt, that's the mother building new earth. Iceland is a dream destination for me, I'd love to see that happening. I hope it doesn't ruin your summer, Hattie, but I was excited when I read about the eruption.

 

[boggybranch]

Volcanoes erupt, that's the mother building new earth. Iceland is a dream destination for me, I'd love to see that happening. I hope it doesn't ruin your summer, Hattie, but I was excited when I read about the eruption.

I can, surely, relate to how you feel. I've ALWAYS wanted to see a tornado......just not up close.

 

[digitS']

I should probably go thru the Wikipedia article on Mt. St. Helens and tone it down a little. I was as close as I'd ever want to be to a volcano spewing ash, altho' I was 350 miles away. That might have been fine anyway, except I was downwind. The Mt. St. Helens eruption " . . . left a crater one to 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and 0.5 miles (800 m) deep, with its north end open in a huge breach. The eruption killed 57 people . . "

Of course, there were people on the shoulders of the mountain who died in the pyroclastic flow and the resultant flooding as melting snow swept down clogged rivers. 230 square miles of forest were flattened.

Probably the biggest problem we had was the uncertainties that came with the event. Other than the continual media drumbeat during the few weeks leading up to the explosion -- we got no real news that was useful. Not surprisingly, after the eruption and during the continuing eruptions - not much useful information got out, either.

For the most part, nobody was going anywhere during those days. To do so, was to seriously compromise whatever engine you were using to move about and, altho' a dust mask was about all that was necessary for short stays outdoors - pushing it wouldn't have been smart or comfortable.

I had the misfortune to be working for a greenhouse at that time. An acre range of greenhouses turned into a collection of 150' long tunnels with light only entering from the end walls. Surrounded by 6 and 8-foot tall rose bushes, it was too dark in the middle of the tunnels to see without a flash light. Clearing the ash off the greenhouses began a day or 2 after the 1st eruption. We were knee-deep in volcanic ash in the gutters, shoveling it to a "mountain" at each end of the 150 foot structures.

As soon as the greenhouses were cleared - the sun broke out of the dust haze and temperatures rose. We were faced with running air-conditioning pumps and destroying them in the process. The alternative was to open the greenhouse roof vents and have the ash sifting down on us and the plants :/.

Roads were, for the most part, empty of traffic and that was a good thing. Not only wasn't it safe to run your car engine but a plume of choking dust rose behind every vehicle like the roostertail behind a hydroplane.

But soon, the blessed rains began to fall . The summer turned out to be one of the rainiest of any that I've experienced in this arid part of the world. As soon as the rain stopped, dust clouds again rose up behind cars on the road but it often rained a couple times a week .

Things got fairly well wet down that winter but every windstorm for the next several years would pick up volcanic dust. Shaking the branch of an evergreen tree would bring ash down all over you, years after the eruption.

Rain, Hattie, that's the best thing for clearing the air. I don't know if it "seeds the clouds" but you will appreciate the blue skies between the storms. Let it rain.

Steve

Mt. St. Helens, May 18th 1980

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Thanks for you first hand information Steve. So far no dust has fallen in the UK but the airports here & in parts of Europe are still closed & likely to continue so tomorrow.
Here are the reasons why:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8622389.stm?ls

Well this could continue for a while, esp. while the wind is blowing from that direction......!! That might change on Sunday apparently.


Hattie

 

[boggybranch]

Pictures......

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36553710

 

[Hattie the Hen]

The chaos is getting worse all over Europe they have just announced that they won't be flying tomorrow either (from Britain that is):

Here is some news from Europe:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_iceland_volcano

It looks as if my brother is marooned in India with his wife -- they were on holiday......!!

Hattie

 

[old fashioned]

I was in Auburn (Seattle suburb to the north) at the time of Mt St Helen's going off & we didn't get hardly any ash at all. A friend had went to Yakima (right next to St H & direct path) for the weekend & was stuck there for several days before she could drive home. It was hard to believe the contrast in such a relatively short distance.
Mother Nature is really showing her stuff