Pictures of Eyjafjallajokull

[Donna D.]

In all it's devastating beauty.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/m...allajokull.html

I'm wondering how our friends and members who live in the European countries are doing?

[HerseyBA]

In all it's devastating beauty.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/m...allajokull.html

I'm wondering how our friends and members who live in the European countries are doing?

From what I heard on the BBC news about an hour ago (1130 CDT) about 80 % of the normally scheduled flights across Europe are expected to take off today.

[Bonnie B.]

From what I heard on the BBC news about an hour ago (1130 CDT) about 80 % of the normally scheduled flights across Europe are expected to take off today.

Fantastic photos, Donna.
Thanks for sharing the link.

[Gerda, H]

Well, that thing delayed my parents visit by at least 1 week... They were supposed to arrive last Friday, and now they still don't know whether they will come this Friday (from Germany)... At least they are home and not stuck somewhere at an airport...

[Radar1]

I'm amazed at the size of those marshmallows in the second picture!

[Time K]

Donna, were you in Portland May 1980?

[SherryNPaul]

My heart goes out, first of all, to those in Iceland close by, suffering the tremendous local problems. First their banking collapse issues, now this.

My friend's dad made it into Norway this week without a problem. Apparently, the air currents still allowed him to return home (Bergen) without issues.

Other friends are waiting to see if their flights are postponed or cancelled. An associate has been stuck in the UK for a week.

Powerful photos, Donna. Thanks for the link.

Sherry

[Donna D.]

Donna, were you in Portland May 1980?

Yes. May 18th... I thought it was snowing!

[Time K]

Yes. May 18th... I thought it was snowing!

Yeah..waiting for the news that the wind was going to blow any direction but yours! How soon everyone forgets ..

[Mike Bromley]

The thing about Eyjafjallajokull is that Iceland is, well, one great big pile of congealed lava. Pahoehoe & Aa. That makes it more of a minor inconvenience, except that Iceland's Jokulls (glaciers) are prone to discharging a mess of melted glacier water every time they get heated up by the volcano they sit on. No smart Icelander will occupy an outwash valley below one of those. The floods can move stadium-sized rocks like they were feathers. These outbursts have given us the geological term "jökulhlaup"...or glacier flood. Eyjafjallajokull translates roughly to "Island Mountain Glacier" whick might be better termed "eyjaeldfjallajokull", adding that the mountain is a hottie.

Fortunately, the Icelandic volcanoes simmer, for the most part. They ooze. Mount St. Helens, a typical Cascade Bomb, on the other hand, can't pass gas gracefully, it has to get all colicky and throw a conniption fit in order to clear its throat. All that racket AND melted glaciers.

Iceland's Eldfell volcano decided, the same year my Boler was built, to try and bomb a fishing port into submission, and the locals ended up hosing the lava flows down, thus improving their Westmanjar harbour with a natural lava breakwater. Residents of the Toutle Valley in Washington state would have been vaporized if they tried that trick.

Small price to pay for inexhaustible geothermal energy, which will make Iceland rich beyond belief in the not too distant future.