ICELANDIC VOLCANO SHUTS DOWN AIR TRAFFIC

Written by: Brian Neudorff

On Wednesday, the Icelandic Volcano Eyjaföll erupted spewing a cloud of ash as high as 55,000 ft in the air. This has created a cloud of volcanic ash, made up of very small rock & glass, and it is fanning out over northern Europe. You can see some of this ash on the visible & IR satellites out of the UK


This cloud of ash is having major impact on air traffic across northern Europe. Airports across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and parts of Sweden. This is not a health threat for those on the ground but because of how high this plume of ash is it is a real threat to aircraft engines.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of rock and even glass, which can wreak havoc on engines and even causing them to seize up and shut down in mid-flight. In 1982 a British Airways flight unknowingly flew into a plume of ash, shutting down all four engines.


The above graphic is a forecast from the UK Met Office showing where they expect the ash cloud to progress over the next 18 hours. They issue these forecasts every 6 hours from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.