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The plume of ash and steam rising from the Eyjafjallaj

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Jagged flecks of ash spewed into the air may have boosted the effects of the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which paralyzed flights across Europe, a new study finds.

The ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull caused turmoil in the air for nearly a month. Still, the eruption was a relatively small event. For instance, the plume never reached more than about 6 miles (10 kilometers) in height, and the volcano only spewed out about 9.5 billion cubic feet (270 million cubic meters) of ash over the course of several months, while some eruptions can spew out many times more than that in the span of a single day.

The reason that Eyjafjallajökull had such widespread influence was due to how the volcano's ash spread unusually far and stayed for an oddly long time in the atmosphere. To learn more about why this was, a group of scientists collected ash samples from across Iceland.

The researchers found that at Eyjafjallajökull's vent, upwelling magma violently reacted with nearby glacial water. This rapid cooling made the magma contract and fragment into fine, jagged motes of ash. Near the end of the eruption, equally fine, porous ash was generated when small gas bubbles trapped in the molten rock expanded as the magma neared the surface.

The investigators found that the median width of all the ash grains was less than 1 millimeter wide. Starting about 6 miles (10 km) from the vent and moving outward, particles smaller than 16 microns - about a sixth the width of a human hair - became more than 20 percent of the mix.

Computer models suggest the irregular shapes of these jagged and porous ash grains made them less aerodynamic, increasing how long they spent aloft. This helps explain why a small eruption still impacted a large area.

"This was not a big eruption, but still it caused problems over Europe and the Northern Atlantic," said researcher Piero Dellino, a volcanologist at the University of Bari in Italy. "This means that our complex society is not prepared to face natural hazards. We have to therefore learn from this lesson, considering that other volcanoes in Europe can produce much bigger eruptions - see, for example, historical events of Vesuvius." [ 10 Biggest Volcanic Eruptions in History]

Dellino noted that their research took place well after the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, which might call their findings into question.

"At the moment, it is impossible to monitor in real-time the content and concentration of fine ash in the eruption cloud," he said. "We need to advance science and technology in order to get data as soon as possible after eruption initiation."

The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 4 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth.

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Why Iceland Volcano's Eruption Caused So Much Trouble

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Jagged flecks of ash spewed into the air may have boosted the effects of the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which paralyzed flights across Europe, a new study finds. The ash plume from Eyjafjallajökull caused turmoil in the air for nearly a month. Still, the eruption was a relatively small event.

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You know the one! The towering glacier-capped strato volcano Eyjafjallajokull is probably the most famous volcano in the world today.
Eyjafjallajokull is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland. The volcano has erupted relatively frequently since the last glacial period, most recently in 2010. Eyjafjallajokull consists of a volcano completely covered by an ice cap. The ice cap covers an area of about 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi), feeding many outlet glaciers. The main outlet glaciers are to the north: Gigjokull, flowing into Lonid, and Steinholtsjokull, flowing into Steinholtslon. The mountain itself, a stratovolcano, stands 1,651 metres (5,417 ft) at its highest point, and has a crater 3-4 kilometres (1.9-2.5 mi) in diameter, open to the north.

On March 20, 2010, after being dormant for more than 180 years, Eyjafjallajokull began spewing molten lava in an uninhabited area in south-west Iceland. On April 14, 2010, after a brief intermission, the volcano resumed erupting from the top crater in the centre of the glacier causing flooding which required an evacuation of 800 people. This second eruption threw volcanic ash several kilometres up in the atmosphere, which led to air travel disruption in north-west Europe for six days from 15 April to 21 April 2010 and again, in May 2010, including the closure of airspace over many parts of Europe. The eruptions also created electrical storms. On 23 May 2010, the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Commission declared the eruption to have stopped. The volcano continued to have several earthquakes daily, with volcanologists watching the volcano closely. As of August 2010, Eyjafjallajökull was considered dormant.

Today the aftermath of the volcanic eruption can be seen in Thorsmork Glacier Valley, the natural oasis that lies just behind the volcano.

What type of volcano is Eyjafjallajökull?

Eyjafjallajokull is a strato volcano. It is a conical volcano built by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and volcanic ash. Strata volcanoes are amongst the most common volcanoes. Due to the glacier on top of Eyjafjallajokull eruptions are explosive and contain much ash.

How to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull? What's Eyjafjallajokull's meaning?

There are many words in Icelandic that sound strange and alien to native english speakers. This name, Eyjafjallajökull, didn't exactly roll off news reporters tounge when the volcano erupted in 2010. The word is a compound of three different words. First, Eyja which means island, but that refers to the Westman Islands just off Iceland's coast. Then, fjalla which means mountains, and last jökull, which means glacier. So the compound itself means the Glacier on Island Mountains.
How to get there?
Driving along the South Shore brings you close to Eyjafjallajokull. The Eyjafjöll Mountain Range is visible as soon as you drive east following road 1 from Reykjavik and you pass Hellisheidi heath, where you can find Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant. There are many volcanoes that tower over the southern part of Iceland, among them mt. Hekla and mt. Katla, both active and powerful volcanoes. Eyjafjallajokull is between the two, standing high not far from the village Hvolsvollur, where you can visit the beautiful Saga center.

If you follow Road 1 eastwards along the South Shore you will eventually pass a great exhibition, where you can learn a great deal about the 2010 eruption. The Exhibition is at Þorvaldseyri visitor center, which is a family run exhibition about this massive and intersting volcano. Make sure you don't miss it.

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You know the one! The towering glacier-capped strato volcano Eyjafjallajokull is probably the most famous volcano in the world today. Eyjafjallajokull is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland. The volcano has erupted relatively frequently since the last glacial period, most recently in 2010.

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About the Blue Whale

Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.

Blue whales reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons of krill a day.

Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed by first gulping an enormous mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on their throat and belly to take it in. Then the whale's massive tongue forces the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. Thousands of krill are left behind-and then swallowed.

Blue whales look true blue underwater, but on the surface their coloring is more a mottled blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.

Vocalization and Behavior

Blue whales live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.

These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour, but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest animals on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it's thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles away. Scientists think they use these vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.

Calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons and stretching to 25 feet. It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds every day for its first year.

Blue whales are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.

Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction. Between 1900 and the mid-1960s, some 360,000 blue whales were slaughtered. They finally came under protection with the 1966 International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery since then.

Blue whales have few predators but are known to fall victim to attacks by sharks and killer whales, and many are injured or die each year from impacts with large ships.

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About the Blue Whale Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.