By C S Mirchandani

The volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajokull wreaked havoc in Europe, disrupting flights and causing million dollar losses to airlines. Experts are, however, more apprehensive that the Eyjafjallajokull eruption will trigger Katla - a volcano named after a powerful witch because of its ferocity.

TWO WEEKS after the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajokull caused the cancellation of more flights than the 9/11 attacks did, flights finally began operating! Lakhs of people were seriously affected and TV channels (other than Indian channels who concentrate on Lalit Modi and Sania Mirza) highlighted the plight of the stranded passengers and the near bankruptcy of airlines and allied service providers.

Executives and even EU ministers missed important meetings. Several lakh passengers spent a week and more in airports. Many of these passengers were old, some had little children and others had severe health issues. CNN carried pictures of an elderly couple who, after a week, had run out of the man’s heart medicine. Then there was the question of money. Several passengers were unable to afford hotel rooms as the severe shortage meant that only 5-star hotels had an occasional vacant room.

CRISIS

WHILE some airlines did help — free lodge and board for the first couple of days, sleeping bags for those in the concourse, compassionate attendants etc — they were facing a humungous crisis as well. Losses are estimated to have been a couple of hundred million dollars a day and some of them might go belly up unless bailed out by their governments, who in turn are struggling to stay afloat. An air catering company is already winding up.

But volcanoes have pumped ash plumes of this size and bigger into the atmosphere many times in the past without causing such disruption.”This is not even a major eruption, so it is startling to see the impact it has had,” said Matthew Jones, a British glacier expert who monitors volcanic activity at the Icelandic meteorological office.

For the first five days, everyone seemed to accept that there was no way out and their governments’ safety measures were essential. In other words, believe in God and pray fervently. Starting April 19, however, some airlines like KLM and Lufthansa were testing the waters and arguing with government regulators. Apparently, the main source of danger was the thick cloud of ash. Ash, for a while, was spewing at 500 tonnes per hour. This reduced considerably even though the lava continues. The ash cloud - on April 20 — reached 20,000 feet against the almost 40,000 feet when the volcano first erupted. Lufthansa and KLM ran a couple of test flights-normal flights but with no passengers or cabin crew and it would seem there was no serious damage.

SANITY RETURNS

AFTER a while, finally there was sanity! On days of clear weather, the pilot was told to use his/her judgment. On days when visibility was low, owing to bad weather safety, a few more flights were cancelled. One must remember that the last time this volcano erupted a century ago it was spitting lava and ash intermittently for close to two years. The new eruptions could continue and may even become more violent and a neighbouring volcano might follow suit - as it has in the past.

This time around, the eruption was initially welcomed. On March 27, The Telegraph, UK carried a report entitled “Tourists Flock to View World’s Newest Volcano”. It went on to describe how the eruption of Iceland’s Fimmvorduhals volcano on the Eyjafjallajokull glacier some 125 Kms east of Reykjakic was proving to be a magnet for tourists and thrill seekers. One needs to remember that the wind direction caused the ash cloud to move East and South, the West is still safe.

Although, a party of sightseers who headed to see the country’s newest volcano paid the ultimate price of admission when their car got stuck near its molten ring and they perished from extreme cold, it was welcomed as “a nice little tourist eruption,” by many like Andrena Erlirigsdottir, owner of an adventure holiday company which is enjoying a business boom.

The volcano, in the midst of some of Iceland’s highest and wildest mountains, is a breathtaking sight. Helicopter flights over the crater reveal a river of lava, with waterfalls of molten rock pouring down the mountainside. Several hundred thousands have now visited it, many from abroad, giving much-needed business to hotel rooms and restaurants in the capital, Reykjavik. Within hours of the first reports of the eruption, volcano enthusiasts from across Europe were booking tailor-made tours. “I came as soon as I could get time off work and it has cost a fortune, but it is worth every penny,” said Michel de Reus from Rotterdam, as fountains of liquid rock were thrown 100 yards into the sky with a sound like a giant bellowing. He had driven straight from the airport.

Icelandic chefs also cooked a dinner of lobster on the lava and served it with champagne to gourmet tourists who paid 350 Euros each for the dinner and helicopter trip.

FRESH ERUPTIONS

HOWEVER, soon the cost to the world became evident. Fresh eruptions thrust new torrents of molten rock through the shattered ice sheets in the mountain crater, spewing a towering wall of ash, dust and steam high into the air. The power and wrath of Eyjafjallajokull came into dramatic clarity as the clouds parted for the first time since the glacier-topped volcano threw world air travel into turmoil. Strong winds whipped the shroud of black, grey and white hues as it soared up to 30,000 ft high above the ring of cloud that clung to the ice-clad mountain top.

The power of the blasts has carried the ash - a potent (supposedly?) threat to plane engines - even further upwards into the North Atlantic jet-stream that passes over the island near one of the world’s busiest flight paths. It was impossible to predict how long.

Iceland, Europe’s youngest country, sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge fault line between two great shifting tectonic plates and the primal landscape of glacial valleys, snowy volcanoes and bubbling geysers is still being shaped by these explosive forces deep below the surface. The unique geology of Iceland creates a hot spot for volcanoes. Iceland has about 22 volcanoes that are considered active (and 130 volcanic mountains), which is a very high concentration of volcanoes considering Iceland’s small size.

Iceland’s volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output over a 500-year average. There are submarine volcanoes as well off Iceland’s coast, and newly created volcanic islands such as Surtsey and Jólnir.

VOLATILE

EYJAFJALLAJOKULL is indeed not one of the biggest or most volatile of Iceland’s 22 active volcanoes. But the precedents suggest that Britain and its European neighbours could face the fall-out for weeks or months to come.

Hidden from our view by the mushroom of volcanic debris lies an even greater threat, the much larger crater of nearby Katla - named for its ferocity after a powerful witch in an ancient Icelandic saga. And an eruption at Eyjafjallajokull has been followed within months or a year or so by a major eruption at Katla. That volcano has also blown another 20 or so times in its own right, on average once every 60 to 80 years - so another is long overdue as it last exploded in 1918. There is no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology. The reduction of ice has not been important in triggering this latest eruption though there are risks that climate change could also trigger volcanic eruptions.