Iceland Ashcloud 2: Return of the Ash

[EXTspotter]

Its back with a vengance:

Sky Breaking news says another ash cloud is on the way .


IAA warns of 'no fly zone' tomorrow

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has said 'no fly zone' may have to be imposed over Ireland tomorrow because of a the drift south of the volcanic ash cloud.

The IAA informed Irish-based airlines that it is concerned that Irish Airports may be impacted by the ash cloud

Current information from the Volcanic Ash Advice Centre (VAAC) suggests that a 'no fly zone' may affect Dublin, Shannon and some regional airports.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/va ... 886826.png

Lets hope its not as bad this time - at least Jamie isn't in Stockholm again!

P.S. Sorry about tablebreaking - I can't find a smaller version

[SwissFan91]

Is this a seperate eruption? Not Katla I hope

[EXTspotter]

No its still Eyjafjallajokull according to the WX advisory report.

[atomicdanny]

Is this a seperate eruption? Not Katla I hope

I think that one would be more noticable as it is 10 times bigger!

[audigex]

No tablebreaking here - you need a bigger monitor

[andysine]

Found this the other day,

http://vimeo.com/11205494

[Richard_S]

I hope that the bigger volcano will erupt sometime in the next days. Its holiday for us and this will mean that most of the teachers wont be in school Yippeee

[Geo Ghost]

Yeah... It is obvious you are completely unaware of the damage that bigger volcano can cause if it does erupt violently. I don't really think that is something to joke about.

Hoping this eruption comes to and end soon. Caused enough trouble last time and it's not exactly doing the environment any good.
Reallying hoping no one dares say "least the planes won't be producing as much CO2" - Volcanic eruptions don't just spew out a bit of Carbon Dioxide. They also give out much more harmful gases and such if I remember correctly?

[michael blunck]

Reallying hoping no one dares say "least the planes won't be producing as much CO2" - Volcanic eruptions don't just spew out a bit of Carbon Dioxide. They also give out much more harmful gases and such if I remember correctly?

See http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 4e#p872490 incl the sub-link.

regards
Michael

[JamieLei]

Hoping this eruption comes to and end soon. Caused enough trouble last time and it's not exactly doing the environment any good.
Reallying hoping no one dares say "least the planes won't be producing as much CO2" - Volcanic eruptions don't just spew out a bit of Carbon Dioxide. They also give out much more harmful gases and such if I remember correctly?

Actually you'd be surprised. Big volcanic eruptions tend to actually cause global COOLING rather than warming! The effect is that Sulphuric Acid particles are so tiny that they are efficient backscatters (reflectors) of incoming solar radiation, which means less heat reaches the Earth's surface, meaning the Earth cools down. Several famines in the last 500 years have been attributed to large volcanic eruptions.

Edit: Didn't read michael's post, which pretty much says the same thing.

But yes, you're correct in that the Volcanoes release vast amounts of CO2, and I believe that about 60% of all CO2 emissions (might be slightly more) are natural, from sources like volcanoes and decomposing etc. Now you suddenly breathe a sigh of relief that we're not the only contributor, but then remember that if the natural CO2 has been in equilibrium for hundreds of millions of years, then our additional 40% is going to have huge adverse affects, and already is.

I doubt anyone's interested but I've pasted 3 paragraphs from an essay I did 3 months ago which explains Volcanic Global Cooling in detail:

Modern consensus regards sulphur dioxide and its derivative, sulphuric acid as far more important in explaining climate change following an eruption. For example, 20 terragrams of sulphur dioxide were released from the Mt Pinatubo eruption, which is converted into sulphuric acid in the atmosphere to become the dominant aerosol (Bell & Walker, 1992). Alongside ground material and colour, albedo is heavily influenced by the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere, which are efficient backscatters but only weak absorbers. By being distributed globally, the albedo of the Earth including its atmosphere can be significantly increased, resulting in a cooling. Albedo data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment found that albedo increased in the following 3 months after the Mt Pinatubo eruption relative to the 5 year mean, and that global albedo in August 1991, 3 months after the eruption was 0.250, more than 5 standard deviations greater than the 5 year mean of 0.236 (McCormick, Thomason, & Trepte, 1995). Sulphuric acid aerosols remain in the atmosphere for between 1 and 5 years, affecting climate change for some time after the eruption itself.

Temperature falls have therefore often been attributed to major eruptions. The Microwave Sounding Unit satellite detected a decrease of 0.7°C in the wake of Mt Pinatubo’s eruption, accounting for the increase in temperatures due to ENSO that year. Likewise, the eruption of Mt Tambora, a comparable eruption in 1815, lowered the temperature by 0.4°-0.7°. The eruption of Krakatau in 1883, another event known to have released vast quantities of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, reduced temperatures by 0.3°C (McCormick, Thomason, & Trepte, 1995). Over the last 1000 years, 22-23% of temperature variations before the anthropogenic increase in carbon dioxide has been attributed to volcanism. During the Little Ice Age between 1400 and 1850, 41-49% of coolings have been attributed. Nonetheless, an increase in aerosols also has the potential to warm the Earth. Particles greater than 2µm in radius result in warming rather than cooling of the earth as outgoing long-wave radiation is reflected back towards Earth, as per the greenhouse effect (McCormick, Thomason, & Trepte, 1995).

By using proxy data from ice cores, we can measure the level of sulphuric acid in the atmosphere throughout recent history. The existence of ice core tephra, a relatively rare volcanic glass, is evidence of eruptions. Acidity levels may also be measured to determine the amount of sulphuric acid washed out of the atmosphere in specific years. The GISP2 ice core, stretching back 110ka documents major events including Toba (73ka), which corresponds with the beginning of marine oxygen isotope stage 4. The data shows a marked increase in volcanic activity in the last 600 years in comparison with the previous 1500 years, matching with other proxy data indicating overall cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Dendrochronological records for the past few centuries show low tree-ring densities and thus cooler years corresponding with large eruptions. Likewise, the 1920s-1950s was a period of marked increase in temperatures, corresponding with distinct lack of volcanic activity (Bell & Walker, 1992). Sudden large releases of methane in history have also been prompted as an explanation for the sharp brief warming at the end of the Paleogene, although with a half-life of 10 years, the effects of such a large greenhouse gas injection into the atmosphere would be confined to a much shorter period of time. It is very unlikely that volcanic forcing would be the main determinate of climate change.

[JamieLei]

I hope that the bigger volcano will erupt sometime in the next days. Its holiday for us and this will mean that most of the teachers wont be in school Yippeee

And as for that, you're an idiot.

I was stranded for an extra week in Scandinavia, and and had to take a train home at great expense.
My friend was stuck in VANCOUVER (which is really really far away, on the West Coast of Canada), and will not make it back to University until about 3 weeks into term, during this absolutely crucial revision period.

Try thinking about other people for a change.

[Geo Ghost]

Thanks for the info Jamie. Just having a read through that extract. Mentally noted for the future

Also, my amazing typing skills shine through once again...

Reallying hoping no one dares say?

If that's just after 1am, I'm worries how the essay I was working on till 3am actually looked.
Ah well, Spose that's a sign that I really should get into the habit of proof-reading things more.

[michael blunck]

Edit: Didn't read michael's post, which pretty much says the same thing.

The given link seems to have been mixed up a bit. Here´s the correct one:
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcano ... fects.html

regards
Michael

[FHS]

Sulphur dioxide is not particularily good for the enviroment because of acid rain.

Sulphur Dioxide is oxidized by ozone gas and converted to sulphur trioxide
SO2 + O3 = SO3 + O2

Sulphur trioxide reacts with water droplets to form sulphuric acid

SO3 + H2O = H2SO4

[JamieLei]

Sulphur dioxide is not particularily good for the enviroment because of acid rain.

Sulphur Dioxide is oxidized by ozone gas and converted to sulphur trioxide
SO2 + O3 = SO3 + O2

Sulphur trioxide reacts with water droplets to form sulphuric acid

SO3 + H2O = H2SO4

Of course not. But with regards to climate change, it ironically causes global cooling.

Water vapour is not particularly good for the environment either, because it's the primary greenhouse gas.