Good news on the volcano front

[sharikkamur]

Icelandic volcanoes produce basaltic lavas, which don't tend to produce a lot of ash (relatively speaking). This phase of the eruption, therefore, is likely to calm down reasonably quickly (in days rather than months - see The Icelandic Weather Report for more details). It will, however, still produce some interesting toxic gases, and the entire

Comments

[blazingskies]

I look forward to seeing television footage this evening of everyone in the UK wandering round with WWII-style gas mask boxes slung over their shoulders.

Are you my Mummy?

Sorry. Couldn't resist. *is ashamed*

[sharikkamur]

Don't be ashamed. I had that thought too. :)

[stevegreen]

That'll teach me to leave reading Nik's LJ till the evening.

[sharikkamur]

No-one blames you. After all, these volcano things don't happen very often. :)

[luis_mw]

No warnings issued here yet. I'll go find the facemask I was supposed to wear when working in tunnels.

[sharikkamur]

By the time the gases have made it to the UK they'll be distributed over such a volume that their concentration shouldn't be a problem. Of course that may not prevent hysteria from the masses. :(

[hobbitomm]

Well, seemingly my brother-in-laws journey up to Wales has been delayed by cloud of volcanic ash...

[sharikkamur]

UK airspace is closed for business. Probably better than having aircraft falling out of the skies. No knowing who they might fall onto.

[hobbitomm]

I figured he was driving, since Essex to Wales is probably not worth a flight. Course, he's also not the most reliable of sources.

[sharikkamur]

Hmm... many people not flying leading to busier roads? I suppose it's the sort of knock-on effect you'd expect, given the experiences with rail strikes.

[sharikkamur]

Oooh! Classic movie! I have the Danish edition of the DVD - Slaget om England.

[maredudd1066]

By pure coincidence the episode of "Air-crash Investigation" that was on this afternoon whilst I was sewing concerned a British Airways flight to Australia that nearly crashed after flying through a cloud of volcanic ash. This was the first occasion when volcanic ash had a disastrous effect on an aircraft and current regulations and procedure date from this

[sharikkamur]

The Jakarta Gliding Club episode - yes, I remember watching that one a number of times when I had internet television. It's not at all surprising that they're closing the airspace, although prop-driven aircraft are probably okay.

The weather forecast suggests that we've got these winds for another couple of days so I doubt that air travel will get back to normal until after the weekend. I'm due to have a visiting lecturer from Belgium arrive at the weekend but somehow I don't think that he's going to make it - it's not worth taking the chance of being stuck here for just a four day visit.

[the_magician]

I'd imagine prop driven aircraft use a fuel-air mixture in a piston, which means sucking in large amounts of air, usually through an air filter ... which will block up fairly quickly with ash, stopping the air flow and the piston engine will stop.

Removing the airfilter will allow the air with dust to enter the combustion chamber and do nasty things to the cylinders (or maybe just block the injectors or clog the valves :-)

We need flying saucer technology, floating on gravitational waves! Or at least surfing earth's magnetic field ...