Thursday 15 April 2010

Planes, trains and automobiles

Vesuvius (Italy, NOT Iceland)

Well, today and tonight all across Europe: no planes! The airports are quiet, since all airspace of the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia is closed. And the one airport still in use is almost next to the cause of the closure of all the others: Reykjavik!

Now, if you don't have a clue of what I'm talking about and haven't watched the news today at all: Iceland is a volcanic island and about a month ago, there was a small eruption. Mostly lava, a few people got evacuated, it looked quite nice and that was the end. Until last night. When it erupted again. And there was no lava to be seen. The gletscher on the top melted (causing floods) and the top started exploding. That in turn caused a lot of rubble to be blown to pieces, shooting into the air and causing a massive ash-cloud. Which was blown by a northwestern wind towards Norway and Scotland. Where the wind was more northeastern, pushing it towards the south of the UK and the rest of Europe.

The volcano might erupt for a day, but it might be weeks or even months before it goes quiet again. And of course, there is the matter of the volcano's sister (or brother). A big sister (or brother) at that. Which is quite close and could cause even more trouble if that starts to go as well.

6 comments:

  1. Does it have any effect on your business?

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  2. I did see something about this on the news. I am really worried about all the things that are happening in the world these days.

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  3. @Misfit: No, for now it doesn't. However, if the flight ban was to be longterm, we would notice the effect in more work.

    @Just Breathe: I'm not too worried, after all it is a natural phenomena, nothing to do with global warming, war or terrorism at all. It will affect those things of course...

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  4. It is incredible isn't it. Hope it all settles down soon though. Apparently we may get spectacular sunsets so I'll be looking out for those! A

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  5. I wonder how long these effects will last?

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  6. And they promised us a good summer this year!! After Mt St Helen's erupted, I seem to remember it caused a very cool summer because of all the ash in the atmosphere. I wasn't aware that there was a big brother thought. That could be bad.

    It made me smile and yet irritated me at the same time, to hear passengers at airports complaining that nothing had been done and 'they aren't telling us anything'! What do they expect 'them' to do? Plug the hole with wet sand? ROFL!

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!