Eyjafjallajokulled - s(tr)anded in the USA

Sitting at the Philadelphia departure gate at 11.00 pm last night on a flight completely packed (presumably as a result of Easter and British Airways strike problems), the pilot informed us that he was "in conference" with Icelandic air traffic authorities as they attempted to maintain the flow of flights across the North Atlantic in the face of the eruption problems. He assured us that, although the ash cloud had attained an altitude of 28,000 feet, he had selected a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet - I'm sure that I was not alone in feeling that this was wise. What he didn't tell us was that the cloud was drifting over much of northern Europe. We became bit-players in the "travel chaos as ash closes air space" melodrama. An hour later, the flight cancelled, we stumbled off the plane into the Philadelphia night, all clutching a small piece of paper with a toll-free phone number, the only assistance that US Airways provided (other than telling us where our bags were - in a completely different terminal approximately a kilometer away).

I was relatively lucky, travelling alone and having my inlaws' home to return to in the middle of the night (and a daughter to pick me up from the station after I'd managed to catch the last train); families of four or five people were stuck with the chaos of trying to find hotel rooms, not to mention the associated costs of a stay of unkown duration. The airline takes no responsibility because they define a volcanic eruption as "weather."

This would, of course, seem a just disruption for a geologist who revels in our planet's activities. I would certainly not want to be in a plane flying into the scene in the photo at the head of this post. And it seems even more an appropriate event for your correspondent, since the ash cloud includes fine sand (indeed, some reports describe particles up to 2 mm, but it's surely not these that are being blown across Europe). As the Guardian website reports, under the unchallengeable title "Volcanic ash: why it's bad for planes,"

Aircraft avoid any airspace that has volcanic ash in it for a simple reason: the ash can wreck the function of propeller or jet aircraft, because it is so fine that it will invade the spaces between rotating machinery and jam it – the silica melts at about 1,100C and fuses on to the turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes (another part of the turbine assembly), which in modern aircraft operate at 1,400C.

That, in turn, can be catastrophic – as the crew of two aircraft, including a British Airways Boeing 747, discovered in 1982 when they flew through an ash cloud from the Galunggung volcano in Indonesia. On both planes, all four engines stopped; they dived from 36,000ft (11km) to 12,000ft before they could restart them and make emergency landings.

That's not the only problem. Ash can pit the windscreens of the pilot's cabin, damage the fuselage and light covers, and even coat the plane so much that it becomes tail-heavy. At runways, ash creates an extra problem because takeoffs and landings will throw it into the air again – where the engines can suck it in and it will create horrific damage to moving parts that suddenly find themselves in contact.

The Icelandic plume has been thrown to between 6km and 11km into the atmosphere – exactly the height that aircraft would be flying.

So, although I'm rebooked on BA friday night, I'm quite content to wait - and may well have to. From USA Today:

The last time Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano blew, the eruption lasted more than a year, from December 1821 until January 1823, reports Sally Sennert, a geologist at the Smithsonian Institution.

"This seems similar to what's happening now," she says.

And it could get worse - historically, eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull have been followed by far more devastating events at nearby Katla volcano - the article goes on to say:

However, as Science Fair noted previously, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano isn't necessarily the main problem. It's Katla, Iceland's noisier neighbor, that's the concern. If lava flowing from Eyjafjallajokull melts the glaciers that hold down the top of Katla, then Katla could blow its top, pumping gigantic amounts of ash into the atmosphere.

The potential eruption of Iceland's volcano Katla could send the world, including the USA, into an extended deep freeze.

"There's no telling how long the eruptions could last," says Sennert about the Eyjafjallajokull volcano."These explosions could go on for some time."

Ah well, I lived in the US for many years and quite enjoyed it......

[image at the head of this post: The Daily Mail/Marco Fuller/Barcroft Media]

Comments

[Jules]

Michael, Hope you make it back to your home soon.(by boat maybe if that volcano keeps up!) Take care. I guess the bright side is that you could be stuck in many worse places and with only non-family around you!

[Andrew Alden]

I hear that ocean liners are a great way to cross the Pond...