Researchers puzzle over how long Iceland volcano will erupt
Ash from Eyjafjallajokull, the Iceland volcano that erupted this week, has caused airlines to cancel thousands of flights. Scientists say the chemical makeup and shape of the ash cloud's dust particles will tell them more.
Volcanic ash: Air travel 'facing days of chaos'Air travel across Europe could be disrupted for days by the effects of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, aviation officials say.
As the gritty formation slowly made its way south and east, a raft of countries from Britain to Russia closed their airspace in an unprecedented move.
Officials warned of significant disruption into at least Saturday, with normal services taking days to recover.
Hundreds of thousands of travellers have been hit by two days of chaos.
"Traffic will have to be reorganised and rerouted and flights replanned, all on a dynamic and quite unpredictable basis," it said in a statement.
In a news conference on Friday afternoon, the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned travellers to expect "significant disruption" on Saturday, as airspaces across the continent were fully or partially closed.
A raft of countries and airlines have grounded fleets amid fears that the ash - a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles, drifting from 5,000ft (1500 metres) - could be catastrophic to aircraft.
In some of the biggest disruption in commercial aviation history, a swathe of northern European sky was empty of aircraft on Friday.
About two-thirds of the 28,000 daily flights in the affected zone were cancelled, while only half the usual number of flights between Europe and North America took place. ...
via BBC News - Volcanic ash: Air travel 'facing days of chaos'.
Airlines will lose at least $200m (£130m) per day in revenues as a result of the volcanic ash-linked disruption, the industry's governing body has said.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said its members would also lose further money as a result of expensive contingency plans. - bbc
Check out this freaky radar shot. Whoa. That is one angry volcano god.
Radar observations at the Eyjafjallajökull eruption site 15 April 2010
No doubt this particular volcano god is angry at the frequent mispronunciation of his name. You could do much worse than to pronounce it "A va low-k".
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