Volcanoes

Well, a Chilean volcano has finally given Australia what we tried but spectacularly failed to achieve last summer. We have The Ashes.

Such tranquility… such chaos

In a spooky parallel to the Eyjafjallajokull eruption last year, the Puyehue volcano has erupted, wreaking havoc with air travel. Just as an aside, wouldn’t it be nice if a volcano we can all spell went haywire for a change?

For so many Australian travellers, the long weekend has been long for all the wrong reasons. If you’ve been stranded somewhere, or know someone who’s been stranded, tell us your story.

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  • Steph says:

    04:26pm | 15/06/11

    My weekend was extended in Adelaide. My wife was on a flight after me today. As a consequence of my absence, I must give a special thanks to Penbo for helping carry my five year old daughter from the plane when she refused to wake. Read more »

  • Shenanigans says:

    10:29am | 15/06/11

    does that mean when it starts spewing out millions of tons of lava we will be taxed on that too, cos i mean really, think of all those poor innocent trees growing on the side of this volcano that will get burnt and produce carbon (being the carbon based life… Read more »

 

Could Australian air travel be affected by a similar event to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which shut Europe’s skies? The short answer is yes.

Clockwise, from top: Map showing active volcanoes in the region; plumes recorded between 1979 and 2001, and the plumes overlaid with major air routes. Graphics courtesy Bureau of Meteorology.

While it’s unlikely domestic flights could be severely affected, beneath the aviation corridors linking Australia to Asia and Europe lies Indonesia, which has more active volcanoes than any other country. A cataclysmic eruption there would cause major disruption to international air traffic, and tourism and some trade as a result.

Darwin is home to one of nine global ash monitoring centres which track volcano activity and advise airlines on current risks around the world. The Bureau of Meteorology specialist who runs it, Dr Andrew Tupper, says it is “virtually impossible to fly in and out of Australia without going over volcanic activity”.

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  • Daniel says:

    10:52pm | 04/05/10

    I doubt ash will reach Australia. Read more »

  • Mark says:

    05:22pm | 04/05/10

    When Pinatubo went off in 92 it was the best thing the Australian ski industry could have hoped for. Go check the snow charts for that year, we had nearly 3 meters of snow. Although it may interfere with aircraft, it is nature’s own cloud seeding mechinism and will provide… Read more »

 

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