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Volcano: Whole continent goes for a smoke (pics)

Paul Colgan

by Paul Colgan

16 Apr 09:16am

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Filed under: Climate Change, Environment, Iceland, Nature, Travel, Volcano

57 comments

When nature decides to ruin an entire continent’s day it’s a great reminder of how far technology has come in recent decades. The last time this Icelandic volcano let rip like this there weren’t jets noodling around the skies over Europe.

The ash plume

Associated Press has provided a handy syllable-by-syllable guide to pronouncing the name of the volcano responsible. Eyjafjallajokull: ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl. A doddle. Probably worth tuning into the 6pm TV news to see how it goes.

European airports have had to shut down as aircraft could literally fall out of the sky because of the ash plume spreading over the continent. More than half a million travellers are affected and some estimates put the economic cost at around half a billion Australian dollars. You may mention climate change in the comments.

Some of the stunning photos the event has produced follow below.

The Eyjafjallajokull eruption

Describe this image

An aerial view, presumably taken from a propeller-driven aircraft

A view from space of the brown ash being blown east towards Europe

Airports all over Europe are shut down.

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57 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Scot says:

      11:04am | 16/04/10

      Mother nature is such a wonder. And what C02 will this add to our life style. I wonder which C02 loonies has bet on this one? Bob Brown and Penny Wong will have a piece of it? Such fabulous photos, thank you.

      Reply

    • Mr Subramanian says:

      11:53am | 16/04/10

      CO2 - 1 Carbon atom joined with 2 Oxygen atoms. The “2” is meant to be a little below the line (dunno what the correct term is for that - it’s not a subscript, is it?), but that tends not to be supported so well in text based systems.

      I’m surprised that the anti-climate change folks have whaled on Worried Mother by now too. I suppose I should give it a few more minutes - the post has only gone up fairly recently.

    • KM says:

      04:42pm | 16/04/10

      Scot
      Is Penny Wong still around?? I haven’t seen nor herd her since the Copenhagen debarkle imploded.
      If the word is worried about climate change. Here is the Worlds biggest emitter.. lets see the all mighty government try and fix that.

    • jamie says:

      11:06am | 16/04/10

      You may mention climate change in the comments.

      Kind of makes a mockery of an ETS doesn’t it.

      But seriously, I’m flying out to England in a fortnight. Hope it has cleared up by then.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      01:56pm | 16/04/10

      Gives’em an excuse ter have a bath.

    • Erth grennie tree luvva says:

      06:18pm | 18/04/10

      Its a disgraceful event,the people who own this volcano should be confined to a media conference with Penny Wong . Peter Garrett should be appointed to fix this mess,at least he wont be at the hairdressers

    • Worried Mother says:

      11:12am | 16/04/10

      Did you know that as climate change continues, the chances of serious volcanic eruptions increases by 47%. Scary stuff. And to think we were warned about this and did nothing. The governments of Europe should hang their heads in shame. Its not too late to chnage things here in Australia though. I urge you to contact your local polictician and request their support for the new ETS. For the sake of our children please do not let Australia become riddled with volcanoes such as this!!!

      Reply

    • acker says:

      11:27am | 16/04/10

      Cant see why there would be any correlation myself
      It’s going to hurt the solar power generators though and asthmatics
      We can’t get to smug down here Krakatoa is nearby.

    • Liam says:

      11:38am | 16/04/10

      I almost replied with “What a load of utter bollocks” but after reading again I will reply with “hahahahaha”.

    • jamie says:

      11:54am | 16/04/10

      Did you know that as climate change continues, the chances of serious volcanic eruptions increases by 47%

      Um, you are kidding aren’t you?

      Source?

    • CynicalGoatWA says:

      12:00pm | 16/04/10

      For a brief moment there, I thought that this was a serious post. I mean if all it requires is say a petition to ensure Australia doesn’t get riddled with volcanoes, then we’ve got nothing to worry about!

    • Rosemary says:

      12:59pm | 16/04/10

      Worried Mother ought to lay off the JuJu Juice…

    • Sam Chowder says:

      01:23pm | 16/04/10

      @Worried Mother - yes they did nothing, with a website and a report, the volcano would not have dared erupt. 
      The volcano is only erupting as it had shares in Icelandic banks and has no other way of venting.  Historically the best way to avoid an eruption is to throw young virgins into the magma and this is clearly an Icelandic responsibility that has not been attended to.  I wonder if it is not to late for a suitable number of virgins to be chucked in for the benefit of these European package holiday makers wishing to fly to Spain.

    • Philip says:

      02:31pm | 16/04/10

      I want to know if the Icelanders (or whatever they are called) have brought enough carbon credits to be allowed to run their volcano. If not, the UN should intervene and shut it down immediately. Then Al Gore and Obama should chair an inquiry. I am frightened for the future of the earth and all furry cut things.

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      03:33pm | 16/04/10

      Er,...Worried Mother….just what is it you think causes volcanoes?  I think you’re trolling.  People, don’t feed the troll.

    • BTS says:

      04:37pm | 16/04/10

      What if I like volcanoes?  I am generating carbons as we speak.

    • Earth Scientist says:

      09:56am | 18/04/10

      Mother Goose - everyone is entitled to their opinion, but seriously you are absolutely hilarious!!!  It’s a pity that in this day n age of information and knowledge, that there are people as extraordinarily uneducated as yourself. Do yourself a favor and grab a basic Year 7 science text book and have a flick through the section on vulcanism please!

      Rosemary below has a very interesting point. I’m going out to stock up on warmer clothes this winter, because regardless of this volcano, we’re in for significantly cooler weather in the coming years. Both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are entering their cool phases, the Sun is still eerily calm, La Nina will be back with a vengeance and we’re just about due for a change in the De Vries cycle in solar activity (every 205-210 years) which historically has seen vastly cooler temps. Whilst sunspots aren’t the best proxy for global temps (they’re ok but can’t be take in isolation), the Suns magnetic (Ap index) and UV outputs are. Both are decreasing rapidly. Cooler times ahead. Satellite measurements of outgoing-radiation as well as lack of equatorial tropospheric warming also confirm cooler times ahead.

    • jim says:

      09:00pm | 18/04/10

      I completely agree that this is happening on planet Aerth.

    • Tim says:

      11:19am | 16/04/10

      I’m a little amazed they even let a prop-driven plane fly nearby, because ash going into the engine’s air intake can also cause a catastrophic failure. (You might remember the helicopter crash in “Dante’s Peak”.)

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      11:52am | 16/04/10

      You can sneak up on them from upwind (unlike gnus and wildebeest, where the accepted approach startegy is from downwind).

    • Simon the Pieman says:

      01:25pm | 16/04/10

      Someone watched and even remembered Dantes Peak - world’s gone mad

    • Anthony says:

      10:40am | 17/04/10

      And in Jurassic Park

    • shabangabang says:

      11:32am | 16/04/10

      4 weeks ago Iceland had a referendum voting no to compensate the British banks for their loses when the Icelandic banks collapsed. This volcanic eruption is the comeuppance following the British arrogance believing they could push Iceland around. Chances are the British economy will lose just as much during this event as it did during the crash. Huzzah for the little people.

      Reply

    • Nat says:

      01:00pm | 16/04/10

      Yeah, sucked in Britain.

      ???

    • Dognuts says:

      11:44am | 16/04/10

      Given that sarcasm translates poorly into text, I can only hope that this was an attempt at such. If it isn’t then there definitley is no hope for us all…..............................

      Reply

    • DanMunchie says:

      11:55am | 16/04/10

      Worried Mother - There are no active volcanoes in mainland Australia. Stop worrying.

      Reply

    • Eric says:

      11:56am | 16/04/10

      Well, there go Iceland’s carbon credits for the next 3200 years ...

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      10:08pm | 16/04/10

      They timed it well then. Because they are broke perhaps we can just write off the debt and have the UN takeover their sovereignty.

      Seriously though was there anything in the ETS legislation (which would need to be taken globally for any impact) about such acts of nature including massive bushfires which are common in oz?

    • Fotheringham says:

      12:13pm | 16/04/10

      Amazing pictures, volcanic activity hopefully will always be with us, it means the earth core is still working fine. It must be frightening if you lived in the area and for Europe its not real brilliant. This will add to water levels rising, ice has a bad habit of melting when its confronted with fire. The biggest danger for us down here is at Lake Toba in Indonesia, its a massive Caldera it erupted about 75,000 years ago and after a volcanic winter they think only 2,000 humans were left alive. Krakatau or the son of Krakatau, is small by comparison. There is also The Reporoa caldera in New Zealand , which would not be at all healty for us Aussies. It measures 10 km by 15 km across. Deadly Volcanos are alot closer to us than most of us think

      Reply

    • K says:

      02:36pm | 16/04/10

      The volcanoes of Vanuatu are also a concern, according to the Volcanologist Jamie Durie interviewed on Sunday Night last week. I don’t usually watch that show but I’ve been fascinated by volcanoes since I was a kid and love looking at pics of volcanoes so found the footage amazing and not just a little scary.

    • Ben Haslem says:

      12:29pm | 16/04/10

      Increased volcanic activity causes global cooling. It does NOT lead to an increase in CO2. Volcanoes emit sulfate aerosols which reflect incoming sunlight, cooling the planet. A large volcanic eruption such as Pinatubo in 1991 can have a global cooling effect of 0.1C to 0.3C degrees for several years.
      (Source: Robock & Mao, Journal of Climate 1995; 8: 1086-1103).

      Reply

    • Harsh says:

      01:47pm | 17/04/10

      Very true, but not many know about this. Good on you to being it up.

    • Steve the Elder says:

      10:34am | 18/04/10

      Global cooling, you gotta lava volcano.

    • Ben Haslem says:

      12:35pm | 16/04/10

      Slight clarification on previous comment: Volcanoes only emit a tiny proportion (about 1%) of CO2 currently being pumped into the atmosphere, primarily by human activity.

      Reply

    • neil says:

      02:32pm | 16/04/10

      And humans only emit a tiny proportion (about 3%) of total CO2 currently being pumped into the atmosphere, primarily by natural cycles.

    • Ben Haslem says:

      03:54pm | 16/04/10

      @neil correct. About 3.7 per cent. I should have written “being pumped into the atmosphere by human activity”. Not “primarily”. Either way, any suggestion this volcano’s CO2 will have much impact on global CO2 levels is misplaced.

    • Ben Haslem says:

      12:23pm | 16/04/10

      Slight clarification on previous comment: Volcanoes only emit a tiny proportion (about 1%) of CO2 currently being pumped into the atmosphere, primarily by human activity.

      Reply

    • Barry Alexander says:

      12:51pm | 16/04/10

      Barry Alexander says
      What about Iceland, and Icelandics ? All the news seems to be about the inconvenience because of the smoke etc.

      Reply

    • Rosemary says:

      12:57pm | 16/04/10

      This eruption (and the associated ash cloud) along with the quiescent Sun (no sunspots) and a predicted La Nina weather event in the Pacific may cool the planet enough to be the triggers for an Ice Age. Remember that this interglacial period has extended for a very long time and the next iceage is thousands of years overdue. All natural events too - perhaps if we tip over into an iceage we should be welcoming any human warming, it might help to moderate the worst of an iceage, something that would be far, far more disasterous to humankind than any excess of CO2.

      Reply

    • spotted reptile says:

      05:10pm | 16/04/10

      Agree with you in general about the current risk of vulcanism associated with minimal solar activity, but I don’t believe there is enough material in this eruption to significantly trigger a cooling climate. Eyjafjallajökull does not have a large enough caldera to eject the kind of plume which changes climates.

      However, if it were Katla next door, we should start worrying. Historically Eyjafjallajökull eruptions have preceded Katla eruptions on the last 3 occasions. Katla has the potential to be a Level 5 eruption on the Volcano Explosive Index which does have a significant climate-altering capacity.

    • Mr Pastry says:

      02:29pm | 16/04/10

      Anyone flying to Europe during the volcanic delays may find this site very useful http://www.sleepinginairports.net/  and amusing.  Singapore Airport won the 2009 best airport to sleep at award,  which is good news for International travellers departing from Oz.

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      02:49pm | 16/04/10

      It’s an old, Pagan land up there with old, ancient Gods. You see a spectacle like that and you wonder if maybe Odin isn’t smiting us.

      Reply

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      03:11pm | 16/04/10

      That naughty son of his, Loki, is up to more mischief.  Where is Thor the Thundergod when you need him?

    • Jack from Perth says:

      03:14pm | 16/04/10

      How will this volcano pay for it’s carbon offsets?

      Reply

    • BTS says:

      03:36pm | 16/04/10

      Ruddy will work out a way to tax big business for it.

    • CynicalGoatWA says:

      06:02pm | 16/04/10

      Don’t you know that it’s all John Howard’s fault because he didn’t sign up to that planet saving Kyoto agreement. And of course his failure to sign up to Kyoto lead to Copenhagen’s failure and therefore all the “unusual” weather events since which lead to a concentration of seismic events under Iceland which lead to this volcano “going off”.

      Clear as mud.

    • Lynne McKay says:

      03:41pm | 16/04/10

      Global Warming Science does NOT take Greenhouse Gas emissions into its calculations.  However, Atmospheric Scientists calculate that the Mt. St. Hellens eruption pumped more Greenhouse gasses including CO2 into the atmosphere that Man has generated since the start of the Industrial Age…This eruption looks like being a close second and yes, Krakotoa’s Daughter is under constant eruption watch which and when it blows will be bigger than the mother!  Global Warming is a fallacy and such eruptions prove it!

      Reply

    • Wombat says:

      09:34pm | 17/04/10

      Anak means child in Bahasa Indonesia (language Indonesia). Anak is not gender specific.

      There is an “of” implied, so the best translation would be “Child of Krakatoa.”

    • Mr. Grey says:

      03:25pm | 17/04/10

      Obviously man made.

      Reply

    • Gillian Gardner says:

      07:15am | 18/04/10

      As the planet warms, the glaciers and ice caps melt, desalinating the warmer salt water that provide the gulf stream to provide a nice climate in the northern hemisphere, after that you get a rapid cooling to an ice age. It’s all natural, Humans might have sped nature up a teeny tiny bit, but it’s coming and it’s pretty cool too. Volcanic eruptions are simply natural, and yes Australia is riddled with inactive volcanoes, which scientists believe can reactivate at a future date.

      Reply

    • BadBoyDenier says:

      04:44pm | 18/04/10

      Ha ha, this is great. I came straight here, certain to find the kooks and sure enough, old concerned mother is on the ball.

      Like any denier, it is just another time when I just laugh under my breath and then out loud. Well, well, I mutter, this is going to cool things off

      But you can always count on the whackos who will see AGW in the mix

      Anyway, gotta run, researching shares in all companies providing things that make you warm, they are going to boom over the next decade

      Reply

    • Liz smith says:

      06:38pm | 19/04/10

      You could invest in eyedrops too, this ash is making my eyes smart.

    • stephen says:

      12:38am | 19/04/10

      Dinosaurs, Dinos and Barney Rubbles : Funny how Nature makes us think of important things, for once.

      Reply

    • Liz Smith says:

      05:47am | 19/04/10

      Actually it was all caused by a typo. The European Union asked Iceland to send CASH, but the message came through as ASH.

      Reply

    • Jenni says:

      11:43am | 19/04/10

      What I found amusing was a photo on news.com.au of the erupting volcano, and on the next ridge over a crowd of people who were according to the caption, “taking photographs from a safe distance”.

      Come again? It’s an *actively erupting volcano* people! I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be calling the next mountain ridge a “safe distance” - ever heard of Pompeii? Australia - now THAT’S a safe distance LOL

      Reply

    • Kathleen says:

      01:40pm | 19/04/10

      I read this morning on Le Monde website different comments by French stuck at airports; and it was quit interesting to see how the companies-and french ambassies -handle the situation: some were provided rooms in Bangkok while others had to help themselves find a room in Shanghai

      Reply
 
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