A bloke I know did a 'what if' blog discussion at the Brisbane Times about what happens if the 'winaprizeifyoucanpronounceit' volcano in Iceland keeps steaming away for say, a year, two years, five, ten, one thousand even. Really, the potential is there for an indefinite burn.

Curious to know what you guys might think about this. What would be the global ramifications?.

If nothing else it would sort us out which is badly needed. It certainly would bring about some equality. Passenger ships would probably become popular again & the rat race might come back to a sensible pace. Maybe all those predictions will come true.

Dear StG,

We might have hoped for some global cooling benefits from this one but it appears not to be the case. To put it in perspective Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines dropped the earth's temp by 0.5 degrees for a year. Mt St Helens only disgorged one tenth as much material so had a negligible effect on temperatures.

This little Icelandic sweetheart is 100 times smaller again so has a lot of catching up to do if it is to make its mark.

I thought it was the plume of the election of a new pope, but it seems though the current one doesn't want to stand down, even being aware that someone other than he would have managed things better to the extent that there would have been far, far fewer pedophiles abusing children AND far more pedophiles locked up.

In the current popes arguable "delusions of grandeur" it seems that he remains the best person for the job.

Honestly, one wonders why it is allowed for the simple folk to be so taken in without attempting to advance their education.

..

As for the planes, Jim Middleton just interviewed some scumbag here on Aust Network arguing that economics are more important than air safety.

I hope that people will have more time to think about their values.

Although many say it may well shake up the ecconomies of the world, just remember, you and I enjoy the lifestyles we do thanks to the huge amounts of employment cretaed, the consumables usesed by and the taxes paid by these huge companies that many of you would love to see crash.

Be very carfull what you wish for, as life as you know it is in many cases riding on the backs of these corporations successes and, without them, most of us would be very much worse off.

Be an interesting development to civilisation if it DID actually happen though rechtub, ya think?. Whether people wanted it or not.

What would the effects on crops and business be in the areas affected, you think?.

I'm only really talking in hypotheticals. Chances are everything will be hunky dorey in a few days.....maybe...

Do do not know about others, but.
It is slightly inappropriate for there to be an Air France advertisement in the middle of a discussion on the icelandic volcanoe

Inappropriate?. We're not talking about the Holocaust and an add for German BBQ's pops up there ponde....

I stand corrected.
Maybe no one thought it was as funny as i did.

Dear StG,

Ok. Here's a hypothetical for you ...

Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic and
the volcano can erupt only for so long until
the whole island disappears and a hole will
appear in the ocean into which all the oceans
will be drained followed by the rest of the earth
being sucked in.

How's that?

What do the "experts" have to say to this hypothetical?

Or all the ice on iceland will melt creating a rise in sea level.
Which of course will be blamed on global warming.

Oh, haven't you all realised that this was a test ban on aviation by the
European parliament to see what effect peak oil will have on the world
economy ?
The wind has changed and it is now blowing towards Nth America and the
test is to be applied to the US 0f A and it is to give Obama a headache.

As I understand it, there are some 25 volcanoes erupting at any given time and air lines take care to go around and uasually without problems.

In this case this eruption is spilling the ash over an area where there is a lot of air traffic.

If it keeps erupting the airlines will fly to other places and people will find other means of travel to the places shut down. In the meantime actual tests will be done to find out what is dangerous and what is not. Someone will start to test the validity of ash damage to aircraft engines. We will learn to cope, however long the eruption lasts.

I think Krakotoa, in Indonesia, was the known largest volcanoe and the biggest bang known to man. It blew 50 cubic miles of rock into dust and the dust gave Russia record cold winters for 3 years. Even caused a tidal surge in the English channel. It was huge. We are puny compared to mother nature and some think that we are so important that we can alter the earths climate. By twitching her little finger nature has shown she can alter the lives of millions.

StG, let’s put your hypothetical into perspective.

Global volcanic activity emits on average about 300 million tons of CO2 each year.
Human activity currently emits about 30,000 million tons of CO2.

In other words (maybe interesting to Banjo) – the planet would need about 210 “winaprizeifyoucanpronounceit” volcanoes to belch out EVERY hour for 365 days just to match what human activity does.

One problem StG ... human activity is increasing CO2-e emissions exponentially – not so volcanoes.

And yes Banjo, we are altering the climate ... whether you believe it or not.

You might be interested in this (check out the Tambora eruption in 1815 and tell us if it coincides with the Thames freezing over).

http://tinyurl.com/whoppas

StG, the Icelandic volcano is minuscule compared.

Funny isn't it.

Those bl00dy computer modellers again.

World financial system.

Global warming.

Volcanic dust cloud drift.

Can't those blokes get anything right?

I burped the theme to Gilligans Island before. That should've offset something.

Well, I dont like to cause undue alarm, but we are all going to die. The volcano will get bigger and bigger, and despite all Bjorks protestations, it will erupt in a massive pyroclastic flow which will obscure the suns rays, and we will all die a fiery death and perish in a hellish inferno for all eternity. But on the bright side, it will save future generations from the horrors of catastrophic climate change, and when we run out of metallic ore resources and petrochemicals as predicted to happen in 1973. Might be a good time to establish a volcanic outgassing emissions trading scheme, except, didnt Iceland go broke and take Britain with it?

StG wrote 20 April 2010 9:45:04 PM:

>So, what happens if it keeps burning?

If the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland continued to erupt at about the rate it has <: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull> this would continue to disrupt flights of jet engined aircraft in Europe, and depending on wind direction, possibly North America as well. It is likely that better detection and prediction of the ash cloud and its effect on aircraft would allow for less interruption to flights.

This could have more effect on North America than on Europe. The USA and Canada use aircraft for high speed transport of people and goods, whereas Europe has a well established very high speed rail network.

It is likely that the European rail network could be quickly expanded to carry more more people (Eurostar has sp[are trains) and freight (the French Post Office already has its own dedicated TGV trains for carrying mail and parcels). On my last few trips to Europe, I was able to travel around the content by rail: http://www.tomw.net.au/travel/tourist.htm#europe

High speed ferries could also be used. Australia would do well out of that as it dominates the world market for large high speed ferries and is the main supplier to the US DoD: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/02/australian-design-selected-for-us.html