If you want to get back to the UK today there are only two ways to do it – by taking to the now crowded international (eg Dover – Calais) ferry routes or through the channel tunnel by Eurostar or shuttle.

@HeathrowAirport No flights arriving or departing from Heathrow until 6am tomorrow, at the earliest. Next update due at 8pm this evening #ashtag

The obvious advice during this unprecedented period is not to set off without a booking, and if due to fly next week, keep checking the flight news before leaving for the airport. Nobody knows how long it will take to get everything back to normal, or how long the ash cloud will persist. The volcano is still emitting plumes of ash and the weather conditions remain stable with the dangerous (to jet engines) cloud spreading all over the UK and Europe.

The disruption in travel is costing airliners roughly 148 million euros in lost revenues per day. After Friday, about 16,000 flights were cancelled, making it the largest airspace shutdown since the Second World War.

Some links via Joanne Jacobs

• Iceland Meteorological Office: Earthquakes last 48 hours table
• UK Met Office: Volcanic ash advisories;
• Natural Environment Research Council: Update on research of plume (including image)
• Finnish Airforce images of damage to engines from ash on 15 April
• NASA Earth Observatory picture of the ash plume
• Norwegian Met Office calculations on dispersal of the ash plume

For people who aren’t planning on going anywhere the skies are uniquely empty of aircraft noise and jet trails bringing a surprising tranquility to areas which don’t normally think of themselves as bothered by flight paths, and for photographers the light conditions are perceptively different, with unbroken hazy blue sky scapes.

@MarinaPepper Deeply textured bird song – no deep rumbling roar or whining. Hadn’t realised how horrid Gatwick noise was even here in #Lewes #ashtag

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Ash Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut Off

Thanks to Louise Joly for providing the link to a sound file which answers the pronunciation question:

Eyjafjallajökull.ogg

( original sound recording by Jóhann Heiðar Árnason )

In Icelandic, when there are two L’s in a row, like in Eyjafjallajökull, the first L sounds like a T

It’s the first time UK Airspace has been completely locked down as an emergency since 9/11

Hundreds of twitterers have posted “Dear Iceland, we said ‘send Cash‘ can’t you read?” #ashtag

People’s travel plans have been completely Bjorked.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued its “conservative estimate” of lost revenues as more than £130m a day because of the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud that has brought Britain’s air transport network to a halt. Flights were cancelled across northern Europe for the second day in a row, and the combination of continuing volcanic emmissions with still weather conditions mean the ash cloud could last for a week. The final bill to the global airline industries could be much higher when the cost of looking after passengers and getting services running again is included.

Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic volcano that has continued to belch lava, ash and steam since first erupting last weekend, isn’t the direct
problem. It’s Katla, the noisier neighbor, that’s the concern. If lava flowing from Eyjafjallajokull melts the glaciers that hold down the top of Katla, then Katla could blow its top, pumping gigantic amounts of ash into the atmosphere.

Scientists say history has proven that whenever the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, Katla always follows, the only question is how soon.

Iceland’s Laki volcano erupted in 1783, freeing gases that turned into smog. The smog floated across the Jet Stream, changing weather patterns. Many died from gas poisoning in the British Isles. Crop production fell in western Europe. Famine spread. Some even linked the eruption, which helped fuel famine, to the French Revolution. Painters in the 18th century illustrated fiery sunsets in their works.
The winter of 1784 was also one of the longest and coldest on record in North America. New England reported a record stretch of below-zero temperatures and New Jersey reported record snow accumulation. The Mississippi River also reportedly froze in New Orleans. (news.yahoo)

The last time there was an eruption near the 100-square-mile (160 square-kilometre) Eyjafjallajokull glacier was in 1821, and that was a “lazy” eruption that lasted slowly and continuously for two years.

Steam Pump – Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

photo by  Örvar Atli Þorgeirsson

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How to pronounce Eyjafjallajoekull