Iceland Volcano Chills Airlines

The financial impact from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in northern Iceland continues to be felt around the globe. The volcano’s April 13 eruption caused widespread disruption in air travel across western and northern Europe even though it was rated relatively low on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, according to the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Sciences.

Eyjafjallajokull hardly compares in magnitude to other major eruptions such as Mount St. Helens in 1980 in Washington state, which spewed 1.5 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, or the Krakotoa volcano, which erupted in Indonesia in 1883, killing more than 40,000 people.

By comparison, Eyjafjallajokull resulted in no deaths and just 800 people had to be evacuated from nearby villages. A second eruption on April 14 in Iceland resulted in an estimated 110 cubic meters of ejected tephra. The plume rose explosively to about nine kilometers into the air. The preliminary estimate on the VEI was a four, according to authorities.

Volcanic ash is a major hazard and threat to aircraft, according to C.M. Riley, in “Tephra,” Michigan Technological University, Geological & Mining, Engineering & Sciences, and World News.

Smoke and ash from volcanic eruptions can impede visibility for navigation, and microscopic debris, including silica, can sandblast windshields and melt in the channels of turbine engines and potentially cause shutdowns. Many flights within, to and from Europe were cancelled following the April 14 eruption, and thousands of people were left stranded. Several military aircraft were damaged.


The presence and location of the plume depends on the state of the eruption and the prevailing winds. While some ash fell on uninhabited areas in Iceland, most of the debris was carried westward, resulting in the temporary closure of a large air space over much of Europe.

Current forecasts of the event are updated at the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, which posts cloud and wind formations on the Web to help pilots and air traffic controllers plan airline routes.

Eyjafjallajokull’s eruption resulted in a major impact on the world because its 7-mile-high plume of volcanic gases and silicate ash spread across much of Europe, bringing air travel across the continent to a near standstill.

During this event, two-thirds of European flights were canceled, including as many as 180 transatlantic flights. Delays and cancellations affected airports from Toronto to Tokyo. These problems cost the airline industry billions of dollars at a rate of about $200 million per day, according to the Air Line Pilots Association and U.S. Department of Commerce.

It’s hard to believe this could be caused by a relatively minor volcanic eruption. But the major disruption caused by Eyjafjallajokull is an abrupt reminder that in our highly mechanized and interconnected world, Mother Nature is ultimately in control.

The sheer power of a volcano tests our technology and how well we are prepared to respond. Eyjafjallajokull was at the right place at the right time to wreak havoc on air travel. If the volcano had erupted in years past, the impact felt by our society would have been much less because air travel was not as large a factor as it is today.

Other natural disasters can be equally disruptive.

For instance, the earthquake that hit Haiti in January killed over 230,000 people and registered 7.0 on the Richter scale. This compares to the earthquake that hit Chile about a month later registering 8.8 and resulting in fewer than 500 deaths.
The difference was primarily because of population density. But another factor involved the Haiti infrastructure, which was not designed to withstand the shock caused from quakes. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. On the other hand, Chile is a richer country with a long history of earthquakes, and the government and its people were much better prepared for the event.


Populations continue to grow and people move into higher risk zones, such as earthquake areas and flood plains. The result has been a rising death toll from natural disasters.

The numbers of deaths have more than doubled since the 1980s, according to the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters. The Red Cross estimates the economic damage from natural disasters rose more than fivefold, to $629 billion, from 1985 to 2005. This doesn’t necessarily mean that volcanoes and earthquakes are getting worse but rather there are higher population densities affected and more at stake.

Fortunately, technology and global wealth allow our world to better prepare and respond to natural disasters.

In the case of Eyjafjallajokull, European air-traffic controllers had contingency plans in place to deal with volcanic dust. Closing European airspace was expensive and inconvenient, but it was much better than having aircraft stalling in midair. In such cases, economic setbacks take a back seat to the loss of human life.

This post is courtesy of TechMan who writes about trends, issues and ideas affecting business, industry and technology.