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The ash clouds that swept Europe disrupted flights across the globe. What really happened? Find the complete story to help you prepare for competitive exams.
Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean in between Greenland and Europe and is the 18th largest island in the world. The people of Iceland are descendents of Norwegian, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. As of today, Iceland has the world’s highest levels of economic and civil liberties and is ranked one of the top countries in terms of human development. Moreover, the country of Iceland has a literacy rate of ninety nine percent throughout the total population over the age of fifteen. Although the country is named Iceland, the weather there is relatively warm during the summers and the winters are considered mild.
The country of Iceland is slightly smaller than the state of Kentucky here in the United States. The physical geography of this European island consists of glaciers that account for ten percent of the total land. Also, the country has high mountains, elevated plateaus, and several active volcano sites. Records show that during the 7th century a volcano eruption wiped out almost half of the population. Iceland also has hot springs in the region, which is accompanied with steam holes, mud holes and sulphuric acid rain that seasonally scatter throughout the island.
Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, is located geographically in a large volcanic region in the Atlantic’s mid-oceanic ridge. Volcanic eruptions are often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth’s plates move and magma which is molten rock beneath the surface of the Earth blasts its way to the surface.
The last time there was an eruption near the 100-square-mile Eyjafjallajokull glacier was in 1821. Another cause for concern is the volcano Katla which in the past has erupted in tandem with Eyjafjallajokull.This one is located under the Myrdalsjokull ice cap region and if this one also erupts widespread flooding could disrupt air traffic between Europe and N.America.
On April 15, 2010 the volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier which is 200 years old and apparently been dormant began to erupt just after midnight, ejecting lava a hundred meters high.
Icelandic airspace has been closed, flights diverted and roads closed. The eruption occurred about 120km (75 miles) east of the capital, Reykjavik. The volcano started erupting small, jagged pieces of rocks, minerals and volcanic glass the size of sand and silt into the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This volcanic ash was even considered to be as small as 1/25,000th of an inch across.
Volcanic ash is formed during explosive volcanic eruptions. Once in the air, the wind can blow these tiny ash particles tens to thousands of miles away from the volcano. Life-threatening and costly damages can occur to aircraft that fly through an eruption cloud, reports the geological survey.
Silica in the ash gets into the engine and heats up and melts, which causes the engines to stop. Based on reported damages from ash encounters, the hazard posed to aircraft can extend more than 3,000 miles from an erupting volcano. It’s Katla, Iceland’s louder neighbor, which causes concern. If lava flowing from Eyjafjallajokull melts the glaciers that hold down the top of Katla, this could cause Katla to erupt, pumping huge 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. The eruption in the Eyjafjallajoekull area is the second to occur in a month. Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of rock and even glass, which can wreak havoc with machinery while ash can is a health hazard.
The ash is likely to lead to particularly red sunsets in some areas, according to scientists. A state of emergency is in force in southern Iceland and transport connections have been severely disrupted according to news reports.
According to news reports the weeklong airspace closures caused by the ash threat to aircraft represented the worst breakdown in civil aviation in Europe since World War II. This led to the cancellations of more than 100,000 flights, with airlines on track to lose over $2 billion.
The aviation crisis that began with an April 14 volcanic explosion left millions of passengers stranded in airports, and the uncoordinated closures of airspace by national governments sparked calls a the wholesale reform of Europe’s air traffic management system.
European airports sent thousands of planes into the sky after a week of unprecedented disruptions, but shifting winds sent a new plume of volcanic ash over Scandinavia, forcing some airports in Norway and Sweden to close again.
The new airspace restrictions applied to northern Scotland and parts of southern Norway, Sweden and Finland, said Kyla Evans, spokeswoman for Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency.
But nearly all of the continent’s 28,000 other scheduled flights, including more than 300 flights on lucrative trans-Atlantic routes, were expected to proceed. Every plane was packed, however, as airlines squeezed in some of the hundreds of thousands of travelers who had been stranded for days among passengers with regular scheduled tickets.
Airlines reported that there was no fast solution to cut down the backlog of passengers, for most flights were nearly full, and no other planes were available.
Some passengers got a break when authorities chartered the Celebrity Eclipse, a luxury cruise ship to pick up 2,200 tourists in the northern Spanish port of Bilbao on Thursday and bring them back to England. A British Royal Navy ship arrived in Portsmouth carrying 440 troops coming home from Afghanistan and 280 civilians back from Bilbao.
Several air planes flying between the United States and Europe were assigned flight paths above the ash cloud that still covered the area east of Iceland. Flying at over 35,000 feet kept the planes well above the current maximum altitude of the ash, which lingered at 20,000 feet.
Meanwhile, new ash clouds were blowing in over western Norway, where Stavanger and Bergen airports were closed.
Though NATO took the precaution of moving its Boeing E-3A early warning radar planes to southern Italy, military aviation was also partially impacted.
Update as of April 22, 2010
Travel-weary airline passengers began their long-awaited journey home as flights grounded by Iceland’s volcanic eruption took to the skies again.
Thousands of planes took off across Europe for the first time in six days. Officials were still struggling to manage the backlog of stranded vacationers – and warned it could take several weeks for some routes to resume normal schedules. Air controllers lifted all restrictions on German airspace on Wednesday April 21, 2010, opening up more flights into one of the world’s busiest airports.
Airlines announced they had lost at least $1.7 billion and criticized government actions during the volcanic ash crisis, according to news sources. Flights resumed in many areas, but the situation was anything but normal as airlines worked through an enormous backlog after canceling over 95,000 flights in the last week.
Euro-control which is the Air traffic control agency said it expected at least 15,000 of the continent’s 28,000 flights to go ahead Wednesday April 21 2010, across Europe, and possibly much more but there could still be severe delays across the globe.
It’s ash again over European skies
In a replay of last April, 2010’s travel chaos, hundreds of passengers had their travel plans disrupted on 16.05.2010 after a number of major airports across the U.K. were closed because of renewed threat from Icelandic volcanic ash that caused such havoc to international air travel last April, 2010.
Air space over much of England, Ireland and parts of Scotland was closed intermittently and the disruption was likely to continue for at least another two days. Passengers were asked to check with airlines before heading for airport.
The worst-affected was Northern Ireland where all the three airports — Belfast International, George Best Belfast City Airport and City of Derry Airport — were closed for varying hours.
London airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, functioned normally but the authorities were keeping their fingers crossed amid warnings that the ash cloud could hit the London airspace by 18.05.2010.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond described the situation as “fluid” and said the passengers’ safety was the foremost priority though some airlines called the ban and over-reaction.
In England, nearly half-a-dozen airports were shut. These included East Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, Doncaster, Humberside and Carlisle airports.
In the Irish Republic, Donegal, Sligo and Ireland West airports were affected. The Met Office warned that the ash cloud could spread to other areas over the next 24 hours. A spokesman of the National Air Traffic Authority said: “Unfortunately, yet again, a mixture of volcanic activity and weather systems have conspired to bring a cloud of ash down towards the UK.”
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