How one Volcano can put the world to a standstill.

I never imagined that a volcanic eruption in Iceland would affect my family. Just as my son, Ikmal was enjoying his 3 week sojourn in Paris, England and Dublin; Eyjafjallajokull chooses to violently gush out its contents. Ikmal is now patiently (I hope) waiting for his flight back to Bangalore, India from London. He is stranded in Dublin as Ireland closes all its airspace. I am praying that he would not be too late for his new academic year which started this week.


My other son, Afif in Sheffield, seems oblivious of all the fuss. He spent the weekend playing football in the Leeds-Bradford games, organized by his fellow Malaysian university students in the UK. I am praying that both of them would not be affected by the finely pulverized lava thrown out by a volcano eruption as it is said to consist mostly of molten silica. This translates that the volcanic ash consists of fine glass particles. Maybe the ash has not fallen where they are.

They say that the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull on Tuesday, April 13 2010, is not as great and powerful as major eruptions like Mount St. Helens in 1980, which released 1.5 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, or the catastrophe of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883, which killed more than 40,000 people and was felt for months later around the world. During Eyjafjallajokull, by contrast, there have been no deaths; only about 800 living in the vicinity were evacuated.

But Eyjafjallajokull's eruption created a major airline disaster initially in Europe. Somehow, the calamity’s effects spread like wildfire around the world; the world being a global village it now is. The standstill in Europe causes a travel backlog elsewhere from Tokyo to Toronto, as airlines cancelled flights to Europe as European governments close their air space. The reason was they were scared that the 7-mile-high plume of volcanic gases and silicate ash which has spread across much of Europe, would be sucked into an aircraft’s engine and transmission system and cause it to stall.

Shutting down the continent's airspace and grounding thousands of flights was expensive and inconvenient, as millions are stranded across the globe; but it was far preferable to having planes falling out of the sky. And while the economic toll of such disasters may be rising, huge death tolls are far less common.

As Eyjafjallajokull is still spewing ash clouds, it is not known how long the effect of the explosion will linger.

The transport disruption, particularly across the Atlantic, comes as the industry is said to have started to recover from the worldwide recession, with business and international travel slowly picking up.

European airlines were already suffering from the slow pace of economic recovery there. Even before the latest crisis, the International Air Transport Association had projected that the industry would lose $2.8 billion this year, down from last year’s loss of $9.4 billion.

Eyjafjallajokull was unknown before April 13th. From now on it would be stated in history as the volcanic eruption that caused the world transportation system to go haywire and may make some airlines bankrupt. Ironically, land transport operators have been having a field day trying to bring stranded travelers back on their itinerary track.

As I write this, I am happy to note that the airspace in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England is due to reopen on Tuesday, 20th April.

Restrictions to airspace above the rest of England and Wales could be lifted later on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Germany, France and Belgium have also said they will begin to reopen airspace from Tuesday.

My son, Ikmal will get to resume his studies sooner than I thought. Thank God.


P.S:

Ikmal arrived safely in Bangalore from London on 25th April,2010. He is thankful to the volcano for letting him extend his vacation to one month!

The GreenHouse Effect

The Earth receives energy from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Most of the radiation is in the visible spectrum which is of a shorter wavelength. The visible light with solar energy passes through the gases in the atmosphere without much effect. The longer wavelength infrared radiation on reaching Earth is reflected back to space and get trapped in the atmosphere.

The gases in the atmosphere absorb some of the infrared radiation and reflect some back to earth.

The contributing gases in the atmosphere that add to global warming are methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, water vapour and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from aerosols. These gases are also called Greenhouse gases (GHG). Of these gases, the concentration of carbon dioxide is the most being more than 60%. The CFCs although making up only about 10% of the total greenhouse gases (GHG) has the most capacity to absorb the infrared rays.Methane makes 25%  of the (GHG) but absorbs 20-30% of the infrared rays.

These gases keep the Earth warm enough to support life by preventing the heat from the solar radiation. They absorb the radiation and re radiate back to Earth and prevent the trapped gases from escaping back to Space.

Under natural circumstances that is good as it provides necessary heat for living things to survive. However due to high concentrations of these gases from man’s activities (vehicular emissions, industrial effluents, agricultural activities and other human activities), more gases are trapped in the atmosphere.

The extra heat cause the Earth to heat up as it increases the Earth’s surface temperature. This is what is called Global Warming.

It is harmful to the environment as it changes the climatic patterns and threaten the very existence of life on Earth.

Global Warming Closer to Home

For the past three months, the weather has been unbelievably hot. During my trip up north in February, I noticed that the leaves of the trees lining the highway in the northern states of Kedah and Penang has shrivelled. The drought was being felt very badly.

We are a bit luckier where we live. As it is within the water catchment area, rain falls more frequently. However the evening rains are often accompanied by thunderstorms because the temperature rises in the morning and afternoon to about 40 degrees. The rain would reduce the ambient temperature and make life more bearable. If it doesn't rain, then the nights would be stifling hot.

Fans and air conditioners sell like hot cakes during the hot weather. I have to admit that I too need the aircon in order to sleep well. It is like the chicken or the egg. The hotter the weather, the more energy is used to cool down, leading to even hotter weather.

No one needs the hot water heater anymore when you can just turn the tap and the water that you get is already hot. Imagine you have to wait for the water to cool down before taking your shower!