This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Air Travel Disrupted Over Europe Again: A Major Global Disaster in the Making – Part I
Satellite photo of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano May 7th, 2010 (via NASA Earth Observatory)
I know right now everyone is focused on the drama playing out in Europe over Greece et. al., but there is another little sideshow being produced over there by Mother Nature which has the potential to take centerestage and prove to be equally, if not more, devastating.
It is being reported that the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull is again causing flight disruptions across Europe, although not to the extent of the previous disruption in April, which was one of the largest in Europe post WWII and caused Eurocontrol, the agency in charge of European air traffic, to shutdown airports across Europe for six days. It grounded more than 100,000 flights and cost the airlines approx. $1.7 billion in lost sales.
The Current Disruption
The current ash plume is spreading south and east from Iceland as depicted in the figure below (courtesy WSJ):
The bulk of the cloud measures 2100 miles long and 1400 miles wide. The main ash cloud is spread over the North Atlantic with an offshoot spreading from Portugal through Spain, southern France and northern Italy, then up to Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. A high pressure system in the mid-Atlantic is expected to continue to drive northerly winds into Europe for the next few days thus increasing the chances of further disruption.
Eurocontrol is reporting today that around 1500 flights were cancelled on Sunday. Flights were affected in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria and Croatia. Regional airports in Spain France and Italy were closed for much of Sunday. Although no airports are closed today, about 500 fewer than normal flights are expected. Eurocontrol has the following latest update posted on its website:
Areas of high ash concentration have dispersed overnight over continental Europe. There is an area of ash cloud in the middle of the North Atlantic which is impacting transatlantic flights. While most of these flights are operating, many are having to make significant reroutings to avoid the area of ash cloud coverage, resulting in delays.
At the current time no airports are closed in Europe. According to the forecasts, during the afternoon, areas of higher ash concentration could move in a north-easterly direction from the Atlantic into the Iberian Peninsula.
Severe disruption continues to hit transatlantic flights as they are diverted around the ash plume north over Greenland and south of the ash cloud causing congestion on many routes. Eurocontrol has advised airlines to carry extra fuel to allow aircraft to fly around the ash cloud. Flights to and from US, Canada and the Caribbean were reported to be several hours late. Although the ash concentrations over Europe have dispersed today (remember the ash cloud is still there, only the “concentrations” are being deemed safe enough to fly), it is being reported that ash may head back towards Portugal and Spain this afternoon. The situation is pretty dynamic at this point as not only the ash cloud keeps moving around according to the prevailing winds, but nobody knows how long the volcano will continue to erupt and the volume and composition of the erupting material varying unpredictably as well.
The Iceland Met Office has said that there are no indications that the eruption is about to end.
As if the teetering economies of the world didn’t have enough to contend with already, the Iceland volcanic eruption (together with the Gulf oil spill) could be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Don’t get me wrong, these “teetering economies” fully deserve to collapse of their own sorry and corrupt weight; it’s just that Mother Nature might force the outcome that our Central Banking oligarchs are so desperate to avoid.
The Latest Eruption
On Wednesday, May 5th it was reported that explosive activity had again increased at the volcano (after the last major eruption on April 14th) with the ash plume reaching 6-9 km in the air (20,000 – 30,000 feet) – one of the highest levels so far – and was throwing out more tephra, i.e. ash rocks and larger chunks of material. About a dozen earthquakes had rocked the area (mostly below magnitude 2) on the 6th of May signifying movement of magma. The magnitude and force of the eruption can be gauged from the fact that noises from the volcano were reported to be heard 125 miles (!) away. Ash fall has been so severe that 65-70 km away from the vent, “everything has turned black” according to the Icelandic Met Office report. 65-80 km east-south-east of the volcano, people can barely see adjacent farms (a few kilometers).
The Icelandic Met Office has issued the following latest assesment today, which is not very encouraging, I might add:
The height of the grey or light gray eruption plume is ~5 km (17,000 ft) but sometimes it shoots up to 6 km (20,000 ft). It is heading southeast but low level winds are variable.
Ashfall was reported to have been almost continuous during the last 24 hours at farms Drangshlíð and Skarðshlíð just south of the eruption. The ash is rather coarse; the grain size is estimated by the farmers to be ~2-3 mm in diameter.
The crater is getting higher. Lava flow is low and not visible on cameras. In the afternoon there was a slight increase in explosive activity, which resulted in a higher plume for a while.
Seismic tremor has been similar for the past 3 days. A sequence of earthquakes started around 11:00 this morning at depths of 18 - 20 km and magnitude range 1 - 2. The earthquake sequence this morning indicates that magma is still flowing in from the mantle. Presently there are no indications that the eruption is about to end.
Ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull on May 8th, 2010
It’s All Good – Until It Isn’t
It is likely that either the authorities are underestimating the potential for a far bigger eruption and subsequent devastation or, as usual (look no far than the cover-up surrounding the Gulf oil spill), are simply hiding the facts from the public so as not to “rock the boat” i.e. keep the sheeple calm and let them go about their slavery as usual. Virtually no steps are being taken to inform/prepare the public if this eruption takes a turn for the worse, and evidence seems to be increasing that it will (not only this, but it appears that many pilots are not fully on-board with Visual Flight Rules (VFR) which means that pilots should fly around ash clouds using their on judgement instead of using onboard instruments such as radar which cannot detect ash particles. Neither has enough research been done to find out with precision what, if any, is a safe limit for volcanic ash concentrations for jet engines. It appears that not enough research has been done to arrive at the supposedly safe limit, i.e. .002 grams per cubic metre of air, defined by the European aviation regulators - more on this in part II).
I almost fell off my chair when I read this little nugget in The Times of UK:
Scientists have produced the first internal map of Eyjafjallajokull's network of magma chambers, which extend 12 miles below the ground.
The map shows how the volcano's tubes plunge deep down through the earth's crust to the start of the mantle, which is made of semi-molten rock. It reveals the huge scale of the eruption and the potential for a far greater one. This is because the magma chamber of Eyjafjallajokull is dwarfed by the much larger one under Katla, a volcano 15 miles to the east. Two of Katla’s eruptions, in 1612 and 1821, are thought to have been triggered by those of its neighbour.
The workings of the volcanoes have been provisionally drawn up by Professor Erik Sturkell, a geologist at the Nordic Volcanological Centre, University of Iceland. Sturkell suggests the Eyjafjallajokull eruption has been building since 1994, when new lava began rising, forming two reservoirs three miles beneath the volcano. They now feed into a much larger magma chamber a mile under the crater.
A surge of earthquakes under Katla mean it has experienced a similar influx of lava, Sturkell said. "This suggests the volcano is close to failure [eruption]."
Uh-oh…
Now Katla, as they say, is the Motherload.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Iceland sits directly on top of a the Mid-Atlantic ridge - a tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean separating the Eurasian and North American Continental Plates and a hot spot for volcanic activity. With around 35 volcanoes surrounding Iceland, the thing is a freakin’ powder keg at this point.
(More to follow in the next part)
»
- advertisements -
Tee Hee!
This is the real God's work.
+2012
Nice piece.
Where's the "good" news?
bk
Thx Bruce.
With this disaster, there ain't none.
I think Katla is going to blow big.It might be enough to derail TPTB's plans.Nothing gives a sense of scale and power like a real natural disaster.They will be forced to move plans forward, hopefully in a reckless enough manner that even the troglodytes that watch idol will say"wtf???".
Go long jet engines...even tiny amounts of ash melt in the cooling passages of the compressor stage turbine blades.This places enormous thermal stress on the blades, which can result in abrupt failure with no warning.
Don't fly on planes that regularly take routes in or near the ash cloud.Seriously....they will blame terrorists anyway!
Buy Gold and silver with both hands.Stockpile food.(and other items)
BLACK SWAN EVENT....act now before it is too late!!!!!
don't go long jet engines, they were be an oversupply when all the planes are grounded
Fortunately I have 3 jet engines (1 freeze dried) along with my food and ammo so I'm in good shape...
You are fortunate, I have not even one freeze dried Jet Engine; and I thought I was well prepared ? Well, live and learn, I suppose.
Don't forget the instant water - it will be essential to reconstitute your freeze-dried preps!
Can't the US, Canadian and various European governments just solve the problem by issuing every would-be airline passenger "paper flight" coupons? Why go to the hassle of insisting on REAL air travel, when a "paper flight" is just as good? Hey, if it works for gold and silver, why not for air travel too?
Why not make them E-ticket it and print their own reciept for it while simultaneously making them spend more money on ink for the printing than the real flight.
ROFL!
Iceland sure has been punching above it's weight in the mega-disaster category these last few years. What's next, Icelandic pop music that causes the nervous systems of non-native listeners to short circuit?
Holy cow.
You mean Bjork?
Well played.
We don't have time for this piddly stuff, 4 possibly oil spill related tar balls were found on the beach!
and all the rich are getting Ipads, we need Ipads for everyone! Equality!
Would setting off a nuke in the San Andreas really boost real estate prices on the "new" West Coast as Lex Luther maintains? I'm skeptical.
Personification of Karma. Good on you Iceland.
The really sad thing is that no printing press in the world would "fix" this problem.
That won't stop them from trying.
Would setting off a nuke in the San Andreas really boost real estate prices on the "new" West Coast as Lex Luther maintains? I'm skeptical.
When are the plague of locusts coming - they should be due shortly, yes
Don't forget cattle disease - I think that comes before the locust plague. Could be wrong, though.
Great post....
I learned a long time ago to direct my attention away from the waving hand of the magician...
An aircraft (or three) will be lost eventually. It will be blamed on everything BUT volcanic ash...after all, the show must go on....until Katla erupts...Game Changer
The ever growing (and covered up) BP disaster is another Game Changer,and equally (if not more so) ominous...
War is the tried and true sideshow of last resort, and it will be coming to a theater near you
good info thanks
OT
GG do you know what became of Project Mayhem ?
speaking of PM....two weeks ago I couldn't log on to ZH....I was repeatedly redirected to a site that showed a a scene from Fight Club (where Marla was in the cave)...The wording stated something to the effect of " I'm in your cave"...it also mentioned PM...I just blew it off as a hack, but I've never heard anyone here talk about it...strange..
Same thing happened to me about ten days ago - but only once. I'm in Los Angeles.
It's the default page ZH shows when servers are under maintenance/upgrade (planned downtime) -- asking for your patience and suggesting you check back later.
When the site is overloaded with traffic, you generally just get the 'page not accessible' error message from your browser.
I googled and found this:
http://www.projectmayhemresearch.com/
Not sure what's the current status.
There is an old man in my town who stands on the street corner with a sign that says, "Jesus is coming. Are you ready?" He stands on that corner all day every day, even in temps. of -20 or worse, and has done so for as long as I can remember.
In light of all that is going on in the world right now, I think I need to go have a chat with the old man.
Considering I live north of the Mississippi, I should probably say a prayer for Katla's peaceful slumber....
When you see him, tell him to stay the hell out of my mind between 8 and 10PM.
That's Rusty-time!
When you finally make your move, tell him there are others who offer their prayers for him.
jd, I second that.
Ryan Air:
"Initially, the airline said the planes all had separate technical problems unrelated to the Icelandic eruption.
But after further tests on Sunday, the airline confirmed that two of its aircraft at the City airport showed small traces of ash in their engines."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8672663.stm
I had a dream in the middle of the night that Katla blew its top. I woke up with the urge to go to the grocery store. The last time Katla blew its top, the Mississippi River froze all the way down to New Orleans. Glad I'm in Phoenix.
Hey maybe it'll freeze all that spilled oil and we can dodge another bullet!
...
The factor that has made these eruptions so troublesome for air travel is the very fine nature of the dust, which is created when the glacial ice on the volcano mixes with the magma.
The big danger with Katla is that it has a MUCH, MUCH larger glacier (1/3rd mile thick) sitting on top of it. If it goes, this becomes a global shutdown of air travel. That, or if current eruptions last for a couple years, then the airlines are toast.
"then the airlines are toast.".
What about their high speed rail? Of course that doesn't help much with transatlantic travel, but if they built the Chunnel, couldn't they.......
Go long cruise ships!
Thanks GG, I had been wondering about this since yesterday while I was waiting for the FinMin meeting that was delayed for hours. Of course, no news of the volcanoes from the MSM.
- no news of this either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG8JHSAVYT0
Yup. The slick is FAR worse than they are letting out. More "change you can believe in".
Too many things going wrong at once. If /since we create the universe with our thoughts, perhaps its time we learn to think. To establish a positive vision of the future in our minds and truly participate in our common life rather than satisfying our own perpetual desires.
It calls for being more than a merehuman and it calls for taking a stand.
Thank you GG
Err...
Let me translate:
QUIT BITCHING, FIGURE OUT THE SOLUTION, and GET OFF YER ASS!
There. That seems to work better.
Yep it's really bad Gordon. This should just about finish us off down here in The Big Sleazy. I'm thinking about buying one of those $100 houses in Detroit so I can relocate the kids to a safer, more positive environment.
I've been to both Detroit and New Orleans, and I'd take Detroit without a second thought. You can enjoy mild weather while you wear your vest and fend off the mongol hordes. It's also only about 80% corrupt vs. NO's 325% corruption level.
YIKES nixon, being from about 20 miles outside Detroit, you might want to spend a little more on that house to get yourself and your kids outside the blast radius that used to be the city of Detriot!
By the time this oil thing really gets going I'll be lucky to be able to scrape up the $100.
One of the comments for the youtube of the oil leak: