EYJAFJALLAJOKULL--THE SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING

If you had a flight planned to or from Europe in the past few days, chances are you've heard about the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Mt. Eyjafjallajokull, a/k/a #@$%&*!@, which hadn't erupted since 1823 suddenly woke up. Potentially a bigger problem in the near future is Mt. Katla, 15 miles away, which, historically, has erupted shortly after every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted because they both draw from the same pool of magma. The 1823 eruption wasn't a big issue for air travel except for the occasional balloon or two. Delayed or cancelled flights because of natural events like hurricanes, snowstorms, and the like are not unusual. But those normally go away in a day or so.

Volcanic eruptions are different--they can last for months or even years. The airborne ash clogs up the aircraft's jet engines, shutting them off. What's worse is that the ash is invisible to the pilots until it's too late. Recent years have seen several instances of airplanes flying through volcanic ash and diving thousands of feet until the pilots could get the engines re-started. Fortunately none have crashed. Interestingly, propeller planes can fly through the ash without harm. Currently in Europe there is a huge rush by corporate executives to rent small prop planes to get back to work.

The fallout from the eruption, other than the obvious (corrosive ash falling from the sky causing acid rain) is the economic impact. Airlines are losing $200 million per day while this is going on. Import and export goods are sitting on the tarmac, unable to get to market. President Obama couldn't physically get to Poland to attend the state funeral of the Polish president and other government officials. In his place, he sent the U.S. ambassador, but he didn't have to fly; he was already there.

Ironically, the eruption hasn't had that much effect in Iceland itself which is fortunate because the country is nearly bankrupt. The volcano is situated at the south end of the country, and the prevailing winds blow the ash away from Iceland. In the immediate vicinity, farmers are taking steps to protect their animal herds from ingesting the ash. The ash contains fluorides which bind to calcium in the animals' bloodstreams which causes bones to become brittle and teeth to fall out. North of the volcano, flash floods have occurred because glacial ice has melted.

Aside from air travel and commerce, the sticky part is the climatic effects of a major eruption. The eruption releases sulfates into the atmosphere which reflect sunlight back into space. You may recall Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, which caused the world temperature to drop more than 1/2 degree Celsius in 1992and 1993. That may not sound like much, but it caused an extremely cool summer in much of the U.S., not to mention a severe winter. Incidentally, during the last Ice Age, the world temperature was 5 degrees Celsius colder than it is now. At least in 1991, the Northern tier of the U.S. didn't have snow like it did in 1816 (courtesy of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia). See KENSUSKINREPORT, 8/26/07. With a short growing season, we'd be looking at crop failures throughout the world.

In my 2007 article entitled 1816--THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER:

In Europe, the weather was just as bad. The authors Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, along with John William Polidori went on vacation to Lord Byron's house on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was cold and rainy, and the trio could not enjoy their holiday. So they decided to have a contest to see who could write the scariest story. Although she didn't live long enough to cash in on the movie rights, Mary Shelley won the contest with her work, now called Frankenstein. Polidori wrote the novel, The Vampire, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's later novel Dracula.

Although my spell check is going crazy, Eyjafjallajokull is fast becoming a household word, even if we don't know how to pronounce it. Under the new rules for Scrabble which now allow proper names, you can impress your partner with the name of the volcano, until you run out of J's. But we'd better hope it stops before we get to that point.

KENNETH SUSKIN
4/19/10

THE PARICUTIN INCIDENT--DOES OUR INSURANCE COVER THIS?

If you think you're having a bad day, consider the plight of Dionisio Polido, a poor farmer in the Mexican state of Michoacan, 200 miles west of Mexico City. One Saturday afternoon, February 20, 1943, Senor Polido was plowing his cornfield with a team of oxen pulling a wooden plow. His wife Paula and their young son were nearby burning some shrubbery, preparing for the Spring planting. Suddenly they heard hissing sounds and saw the earth in front of them crack and open up a fissure almost 7 feet across. Smoke began pouring from that hole, spreading ashes on the ground. A sulphuric smell like rotten eggs emanated from the ground.

Polido went to look into the hole and saw that it was only a couple of feet deep. He vainly tried to fill it with dirt, but then he felt the ground beneath him rumbling like thunder. He turned to his wife and son who had already fled the scene. Then he turned back to the hole where the ground had swelled up and risen 7-8 feet high. The smoke began pouring out with greater intensity.

Needless to say, Senor Polido was very upset. His thoughts were for the safety of his family and his animals. He ran to the spring and found that the water was gone. By then the terrified farmer was frantically reciting every prayer he knew, as he jumped on his horse and galloped into the town of Paricutin. There he found his family waiting for him, relieved that he was safe.

But it gets worse. What Senor Polido didn't know was that he was witnessing an extraordinary event--the birth of a volcano. Couldn't it happen on somebody else's land? Polido excitedly told his story to the local authorities, and the mayor sent out an investigating committee. They arrived at the scene a couple of hours later and found a large hole with dense black smoke pouring out.

That night the explosions and fireworks began. Within a week, the explosions occurred every few seconds, spewing ash and cinders high into the air. By that time, the eruptions had built up a cinder cone 500 feet high. Polido's farm had vanished, buried under a mountain of ash. Red hot lava began pouring out in waves headed for town at the rate of 100 feet per hour. Within 10 weeks the volcano grew to be more than 1000 feet high.

It was no longer just Sr. Polido's problem. The village of Paricutin had to be evacuated along with another nearby village, San Juan Parangaricutiro. Both villages were overwhelmed by the lava flows. By July, only the roof and towers of the Paricutin church remained visible as the cooling lava was still advancing at 600 feet per day.

Mercifully, nobody was killed during the eruption although 3 people were killed by lightning associated with the eruption. According to the Paricutin website, "lightning bolts, as many as 30 an hour, flashed and cracked 500 to 1500 feet in length through the ash cloud." However it was devastating to plant and animal life. As many as 4000 farm animals and 500 horses died from breathing the volcanic ash.

This event proved to be a bonanza for geologists and vulcanologist who arrived in droves to witness this extraordinary event. Today, Polido and the experts would be making the rounds of Oprah and the Today Show. Time Magazine did cover the eruption. Even then-Vice President Harry Truman visited the site.

This type of eruption was called a Strombolian eruption (named after the famous Sicilian volcano), meaning that it exploded from a single vent and it gushed basaltic lava. According to the Paricutin website, the lava flow ultimately covered 10 square miles while its volcanic sand covered about 20 square miles. The powerful explosions caused ashes to fall as far away as Mexico City.

The volcano continued erupting off and on for 9 years. In a major eruption in 1949, almost 1000 people were killed. The volcano has been dormant since 1952 and is now considered extinct. While Sr. Polido and his neighbors didn't have insurance for this cataclysmic event, eventually the Mexican government took note and resettled them a safe distance from El Monstruo.

In closing, this event was the first time in history that scientists could observe the entire life cycle of a volcano. That was no consolation for the unfortunate Senor Polido. Perhaps they could have named the mountain after him.

KENNETH SUSKIN
12/15/09