Why Did Icelandic Volcano Wreak Havoc on Aviation?
AccuWeather.com reports that the recent Icelandic volcano eruption is responsible for one of the most costly and widespread aviation crises on record. How was this volcano able to cause such a travel nightmare? Eyjafjallajokull’s ash plume stalled aviation over Europe for more than five days because of the interaction between ice and lava during the eruption, as well as the lava composition, which is unique and influenced by the country’s glacial nature. Eyjafjnallajokull is a subglacial volcano, meaning the eruption occurs beneath the surface of an ice sheet. The heat of the lava from these volcanoes has the power to melt overlying ice, making lava flow much more easily. “The eruption did migrate to be subglacial, and that interaction with the glacial ice has been more explosive through fragmentation of the lavas,” explained Peter La Femina, Associate Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. The volcano erupted in separate phases, with the first relatively calm p
