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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)
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The Winchester boys will be ending that shit soon.
+1
Wow, almost as chilling as Armaments 2:9-21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk
you and Brother Maynard made my evening
freaky ain't it?
Live Feed:
http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/
Wadda wadda wadda say...eh?
Looking at dah pictures, thar be no big plume-o'-ash-a-blurting and bursting in air. So where's the big ta-do-dah oh-ho about closing down European airspace coming from?
Guess it's like Brylcreem, a "little dab'll do ya up right-n'-tight."
Somebody's makin' this shit up, inflating it for another reprise of the expand the bureaucracy and control routines, take in more taxes and away more peon's rights.
Wow. Thanks for the kick ass link. What a world we live in.
The stories we'll be able to tell the next generations as they grind their corn with stone tools.
"I used to be able to watch a volcano on the other side of the earth in real time using IR imagery"
"Whatever you say grandpa."
Ha! Like there's still gonna be tools.
Sure, they'll just ALL be made in China!
nice, thanks
So does this mean the Keynesians/Statists of the world will no longer pursue global warming regulation as this is in fact a massive cooling process? Should I anticipate a massive polar bear population boom? If so, does anybody know any polar bear repellent start ups that look promising?
Nope. Just means that Iceland is going to get hit with one helluva tax wallop when they make Cap and Trade retroactive!
I think Mr. Leo wrote something bullish about a Chinese polar bear repellent firm recently.
No, leo mentioned "solar bears". Sorry for the confusion.
Or was that Chinese polar stocks? I'm so confused.
LOL