Volcano

[threeringedmoon]

Originally published at Five Acres with a View. You can comment here or there.

The Incredible Images of Iceland Volcano from Just a Few Kilometers Away gives an idea of how a Icelandic volcano can cause such havoc in Europe.  One of the photos shows a tiny helicopter next to the plume of smoke. Astronomy Picture of the Day – Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano has another striking photo.

Comments

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

I remember as a kid being disappointed at first with the Mt St Helens eruption because it was "only" ash that we were seeing coming from the volcano. Then the ash plume started traveling around the world and I realized that this "disappointing" event was actually quite enormous. This Icelandic eruption reminds me of that - it's quite amazing to experience ash clouds so thick that day turns to twilight and a layer of gray rains down and covers everything. I can absolutely believe how it can cause the inability to fly half a world away. (On the plus side, in a year or two they will have the most amazing fertility in their gardens. My dad always said for a few years following Mt St Helens he practically didn't have to amend the soil at all for planting, the ash provided so many new nutrients to the soil.)

I can only imagine what people made of such events before science helped to take some of the mystery away from them.