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Icelandic Volcano woes

post #1 of 40
4/18/10 at 2:44am
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I'm growing more and more concerned for the effect that Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption is having on air travel here in Europe.
The dust cloud that has succeeded in closing down almost 30 European airspaces in the past 4 days shows no sign of stopping. The disruption to travel in / out / within Europe is colossal.

I'm sure I represent just a fraction of the TENS OF THOUSANDS of travellers effected by this force of nature, but my wife and I had travel plans for this week, and, of course our permanent move to Australia in just 4 weeks from now. I am sitting in a half-empty house with most of our possessions sold or packed, wondering if my wife and I will actually get home again. If not, we will be living off the charity of friends until the airports open again.

The last time the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in the early 1820's, it did so for over a year.
Right now with winds dispersing the glass and ash east south-east, Europe is basically under lockdown. If the wind were to shift in the opposite direction, the east coast of the USA would suffer a similar fate.

I guess no matter how much we as humans feel we have control over pretty much anything, good old mother nature rises to the challenge to keep us all in check.
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post #2 of 40
4/18/10 at 4:22am
It is indeed humbling too see how one puny little volcano can shut down a key aspect of civilization. Reminds me of the Myazaki animes I just saw in a television retrospective, which all carry the message that you must live with rather than against nature to survive in the long run.
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post #3 of 40
4/18/10 at 4:29am
I feel for you, Dimi, damned vulcano!

Kept the Belgian Royal Family away from our Queens birthday
the other day ... the British Royals didn't came either!

Now THAT was a tradigy!
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post #4 of 40
4/18/10 at 4:54am
Are you getting good sunsets, at least?
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post #5 of 40
4/18/10 at 5:19am
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Alas no, Galamb. Perhaps the slightest of slightest yellow tinge that wasn't there a week ago, but I imagine the spectacular sunsets are seen in the UK.
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post #6 of 40
4/18/10 at 5:23am
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I have been watching this & am worried, very worried. Isn't there a second, even larger volcano, that erupts when this one does? This is so scary and completely out of human control.

Could you plan to get home some other way? By ship perhaps?
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post #7 of 40
4/18/10 at 6:27am
Thread Starter 
Well, ship would be quite possibly possible... as a last resort of course. It would be much simpler if we werent transporting our worldly possessions with us.

EUROPEAN BASENOTERS: Have any of you heard how or if the air mail services are effected by this?
Our local news has not announced whether the eruption has had an impact on the postal services, or whether air consignments are being sent by other means.
Has your local news addressed this?
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post #8 of 40
4/18/10 at 6:36am
Here in Finland they announce about flights one day at the time: on Friday the papers said no flights on Saturday, yesterday they said no flights on Sunday, today they said no flights on Monday... I think this applies to air mail as well.

I also read that the situation could last for weeks or even months.
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post #9 of 40
4/18/10 at 6:49am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tigrushka View Post


I also read that the situation could last for weeks or even months.

Yes, this is what I find incredible.
All those tens of thousands of poor people abroad, trying to get back home to Europe, and are paying expensive hotel accommodation in the meantime.
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post #10 of 40
4/18/10 at 7:34am
Hub was just in a congress in Lapland and had to take a bus home. The trip took 17 hours.

Inside Europe people are taking trains, buses and boats instead of planes but if you have to travel to another continent and cross great wide oceans, things get much more tricky.
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post #11 of 40
4/18/10 at 7:56am
Big hullo to all my basenotes friends.
I´m trapped here in Teneriffe with my family. It is very pleasant here but thing will be difficult finacially if it goes on for too long, and issues with missed work etc will be problematic too....

Lots of perfumeries here to distract me...

All the best.
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post #12 of 40
4/18/10 at 8:04am
Dimitri, here in the UK they're redirecting as much as they can via road and rail. I never realised they flew mail internally as well as overseas!

source: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/j...iaId=112300784
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post #13 of 40
4/18/10 at 8:11am
Hotel rates have supposedly skyrocketed here in Amsterdam and in Copenhagen, probably in other places as well... Disgusting.
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post #14 of 40
4/18/10 at 8:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hirch_duckfinder View Post

I´m trapped here in Teneriffe with my family. It is very pleasant here but thing will be difficult finacially if it goes on for too long, and issues with missed work etc will be problematic too....
.

I'd imagine its financially crippling for many travellers Hirch. (Sounds like you can bare it though! ). I heard that one Spanish airport has re-opened their airspace today, but your problem will be flying back into the UK.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Petra Ichor View Post

Dimitri, here in the UK they're redirecting as much as they can via road and rail. I never realised they flew mail internally as well as overseas!

Thanks for the update Petra. I wasnt aware of that either. Well, I have a package en route from Italy... some rather precious perfumed cargo, so fingers crossed it will get here somehow.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tott View Post

Hotel rates have supposedly skyrocketed here in Amsterdam and in Copenhagen, probably in other places as well... Disgusting.

Yes, this is appalling. First the Russian taxi drivers hike tariffs after the recent bomb blasts, and now this.
Then again, Copenhagen hotel prices are colossal at the best of times. I would hate to be stranded here in Denmark! (Which,... I kinda am) lol.
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post #15 of 40
4/18/10 at 8:54am
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Interestingly, the internal heat of the Earth comes from and is maintained mostly from radioactive decay and can be around 7000K at it's solid inner core. Magma from volcanic eruptions however is a product of the much cooler mantle rock in areas of higher temperature and lower pressure in a few kilometers of the Earth's mantle. Nonetheless, events like this show us how much we rely on the Earth maintaining itself within a very small range of physical constants or all kinds of problems begin to break out.
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post #16 of 40
4/18/10 at 9:17am
It seems like one would be better off to make arrangements for land/ship return because flying is too risky. As long as ash particles are thick you can forget about flying.
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post #17 of 40
4/18/10 at 10:21am
It is appalling to hear that the hotels are sticking it to folks who are stranded. I would think that from a marketing standpoint, it would be great to discount rates instead... but greed takes over. If it lasts much longer, maybe local residents can take in some of the folks who are running out of money?
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post #18 of 40
4/18/10 at 11:52am
Is it possible for anyone to take the train to elsewhere in Europe and fly out from there? It seems western and northern Europe are most affected.

It sounds extreme but desperate times calling for desperate measures, and so forth...
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post #19 of 40
4/18/10 at 12:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galamb_Borong View Post

Is it possible for anyone to take the train to elsewhere in Europe and fly out from there? It seems western and northern Europe are most affected.

It sounds extreme but desperate times calling for desperate measures, and so forth...

Trains, ferries and bus lines are coming apart at the seams as punters attempt to do just that.
The ferry lines between Dover and Calais have transported 9000 people (foot traffic only - excluding cars) this weekend, where normally at this time of year, it would be 200-300.

My wife had considered a 20 hour train & bus combo to reach her destination this coming Friday, but when she called last Thursday to make reservations, she was assured there were already no places ...this, only 48 hours after Eyjafjallajokull began to belch ash and on precisely the same day the first airports began to close. Since then, the media has given the situation full coverage, resulting in crazed scrambles for other modes of transport. We are pretty much paralysed.
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post #20 of 40
4/18/10 at 12:14pm
Its a big issue for travelers thats for sure.

But its nothing compared to the multiple earthquakes that mother nature has imparted on various parts of the world in the past 3-4 months (most recently in China).

Eyjafjallajokull ...how did they come up with that name ?
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post #21 of 40
4/18/10 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by zztopp View Post

Eyjafjallajokull ...how did they come up with that name ?

Some Icelander tripped down a flight of stairs with a box of Scrabble in their hands...
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post #22 of 40
4/18/10 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimitri View Post

Some Icelander tripped down a flight of stairs with a box of Scrabble in their hands...

Lol... apparently swallowed some of the tiles and spat them out.
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post #23 of 40
4/18/10 at 1:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimitri View Post

Some Icelander tripped down a flight of stairs with a box of Scrabble in their hands...

Haha! Only surpassed by street names in Amsterdam.
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post #24 of 40
4/19/10 at 1:16am
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News this morning is that whilst Europe is still blanketed in ash, the plume is dissipating towards Canada now.
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post #25 of 40
4/19/10 at 2:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zztopp View Post


Eyjafjallajokull ...how did they come up with that name ?

It means: the glacier of the island mountains
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post #26 of 40
4/19/10 at 3:39am
Awesome pictures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...black-fog.html

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post #27 of 40
4/19/10 at 5:12am
Thread Starter 
6.3 MILLION people effected by cancelled flights in the past 5 days.
200 MILLION dollars estimated loss in revenue for the airline industry each day.

Those photos are indeed spectacular Adonis!
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post #28 of 40
4/19/10 at 5:27am
I'd offer you the use of my canoe, were it not for my concern that the volcano would spew lava Far enough to form a new Barrier reef around Denmark!

Hephestus seems to have taken a liking to you as a Dane.
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post #29 of 40
4/19/10 at 6:05am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thaifighter View Post

Hephestus seems to have taken a liking to you as a Dane.

Oh JEEZ! A fate worse than death!
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post #30 of 40
4/19/10 at 6:19am
Where's Elijah Wood when you need him?

Really sorry to hear about the uncertainty this has caused you and many others with respect to current and future travel plans. At least when the ash is thick enough to block out the sun, you won't have to worry about damage to your vintage bottles.
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post #31 of 40
4/19/10 at 6:20am
That is unconscionable that hotels are profiting by this.
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post #32 of 40
4/19/10 at 7:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimitri View Post

EUROPEAN BASENOTERS: Have any of you heard how or if the air mail services are effected by this?
Our local news has not announced whether the eruption has had an impact on the postal services, or whether air consignments are being sent by other means.
Has your local news addressed this?

I heard freighter planes *did* fly, or at least occasionally. I suppose that includes postal planes.
Other than that, we're royally screwed, aren't we? Apart from the obvious economical damage and shameful profiting off stranded tourists, think of all the small-scale personal drama: missed births, deaths, weddings... Turns out we're not quite the masters of nature we'd imagined ourselves.

Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis View Post

Haha! Only surpassed by street names in Amsterdam.

Oi! I take exception to that. Perfectly pronounceable.
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post #33 of 40
4/19/10 at 12:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis View Post

Awesome pictures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...black-fog.html


Wow, that is really apocalyptic!
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post #34 of 40
4/19/10 at 12:44pm
Thread Starter 
Check the second photo from Adonis' link here... talk about fire and brimstone!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...x636_popup.jpg
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post #35 of 40
4/19/10 at 1:25pm
I was seriously considering taking a vacation in Europe this spring, but due to some practical and financial reasons decided to spend it in San Francisco instead. If we'd gone the Europe route, we'd still be there! I wonder if I can claim prescience.

Europe: upside; Paris, downside; grand opening of Hell.
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post #36 of 40
4/19/10 at 1:29pm
Not apocaliptic... a nuclear war would be apocaliptic.

volcanos are just a ... ver very big problem!

well, this one will keep on throwing ash for one more year, let's just hope there won;t be big eruptions, so the ash would get to the ground everywere in europe, that would be a biger problem than the canceled flights.

I saw on the news that there's a risk another volcano, 5 times bigger, near it, might errupt. They say that everytime this one errupts, the bigger one errupts as well. Now that would be a lot worse. It would go past canada, and europe would be covered in ash. Let's pray that this erupring volcano stays single... another one would be even a bigger catastrophy.
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post #37 of 40
4/19/10 at 2:48pm
Thread Starter 
50 flights were also grounded in Canada and the US east coast today...
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post #38 of 40
4/19/10 at 3:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galamb_Borong View Post

I was seriously considering taking a vacation in Europe this spring, but due to some practical and financial reasons decided to spend it in San Francisco instead. If we'd gone the Europe route, we'd still be there! I wonder if I can claim prescience.

Europe: upside; Paris, downside; grand opening of Hell.

LOL. You can claim whatever you like GB... but that was fortunate. You'd be working illegally as a farm hand or something about now if you'd made the Europe choice!
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post #39 of 40
4/20/10 at 3:04am
Get ready for decades of Icelandic fireworks

Judging by recent volcanic and earthquake activity, Thordarson and his colleagues believe that Iceland is entering its next active phase and estimate it will last for 60 years or so, peaking between 2030 and 2040.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...fireworks.html

Oh, and more spectacular photos!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...llajokull.html
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post #40 of 40
4/20/10 at 9:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimitri View Post

Check the second photo from Adonis' link here... talk about fire and brimstone!

Looks like Sauron himself is about to rise.

I agree that "homestay" with local residents is a pretty good idea... And I'm rather disappointed that those with the means are not taking the initiative to take in a few stranded travelers. Hotel occupancy is averaging in the high 90s here in Singapore.
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