Dealing with the Volcanic Ash event inside the UK.
The Volcano in Iceland begun erupting in late March 2010 and has been gaining in strength over time since Eruptions can send ash 11km into the stratosphere from the crator. Demands for an end for the no-fly ban comes from airlines
Volcanic Ash UK Flights cancelled
- Brussels considers state aid for airlines
- Crisis forces air-freight logistics reconsideration
- Networking sites support rescue those stranded
- Search for certainty in unsettled world
- Airline stocks lose altitude in ash trail
With atmospheric pressure high around the Atlantic between Iceland and also the British Isles, winds blow the ash east and south towards Scandinavia and north to western Europe.
The ash plume causing trouble at the moment is likely to spread.
The question then is whether further highly effective eruptions will lead to similar difficulties inside the weeks or months forward. When Eyjafjallajokull last erupted in 1821 it remained active for a year – and volcanologists fear that its activity could be a precursor to an eruption of nearby Mount Katla, which may possibly be much much more effective and disruptive, both locally in Iceland and in its global impact.
Volcanic Ash is usually a really fine dust, thousands of metres up inside the atmosphere, but the tiny particles are highly? sharp and abrasive when sucked into aircraft engines. Hence it causes flight suspension.
Chemically the ash is made predominantly of silica, the principal ingredient of sand and glass. Inside a jet engine it can bring about serious trauma to fan blades and clog surfaces; it might even melt and clog nozzles with molten glass.
But, looking at the bright side, you may well see substantiating signs with the ash if the sky is clear this evening, inside the form of a dramatic sunset.
Eventually the volcanic ash is bound to arrive to earth, but the ash may possibly be so widely dispersed by then as to become undetectable among local sources of dust and dirt. A great deal thicker volcanic ash is deposited close to erupting volcanoes.
Huge volcanic eruptions send more than sufficient dust and gas in to the atmosphere to have a meteorological impact. The most recent was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo inside the Philippines, which cooled the globe by more or less 0.5°C over the following two years.
This Icelandic eruption is not effective ample to have such an effect, although it may possibly do so inside the time to come if the eruptions gain strength.
Inside the worst case, the eruption at Laki in Iceland in 1783 could possibly be an awful precedent. That emitted an estimated 120m tonnes of sulphur dioxide and a vast quantity of highly fine dust, which caused a persistent haze across western Europe for several months – and is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of persons through respiratory and other unwellness.
If anything like Laki happened now leading to a lot more Volcanic Ash UK affecting, then north Atlantic airspace could possibly have to be unopen for months.