The Unstable Part of the World

An unstable Iceland part of the World Midday yesterday 6pm yesterday Midnight 6am today Tectonic plate boundaries (predicted) North American plate No-fly Eurasian plate zone Ash cloud Mid-Atlantic ridge How the ash cloud spread Tuesday 11.30pm First signs of tremors from the volcano, which had been quiet since 1823 Wednesday 7.30pm BAA holds conference call of operations directors to discuss impact of flights in Scotland and Scandinavia 6am 800 residents from 7am The plume of ash is 5 to 6 miles above the volcano and debris is being carried towards the British Isles and Scandinavia 7.30am Icelandic around the glacier evacuated as water 00.30am Iceland's Civil Protection Department alerted by the duty geophysicist, Bergthora Thorbjarnardottir Meteorological Office contacts the Met Office in Exeter. A volcanic ash advisory is then issued at 10.30Oam dow O Eyjafjallajökull is the name of the ice cap that covers a 1,670m-high volcano gushes down mountainside and rivers rise by up to ten feet O When it erupts it produces a distinctive grey ash thath has a high Midnight Met Office issues warning of ash plume on Scotland flight information region Atlantic 0cean Reykjavik Norwegian Sea fluoride content Iceland O The volcano's crater is Eyjafjallajökull Yesterday two miles wide lam National Air Traffic Service announces restrictions on flights in Scotland Husavik O It has erupted three times before in North westerly winds that carried the ash away from Iceland were caused Shetland Islanders report a "bitter taste in their mouth" Holmavik Vopnafjordhur Sweden historical times: in 1821, 1612, and 920 Olafsvik Norway by an area of high pressure south of the island 3.17am Message sent by BAA: "Volcanic ash cloud descending on UK" Oslo 5am Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports suspend all flights. Long-haul flights from US to UK suspended Stockholm Edinburgh O Aberdeen Iceland's major volcanos High Glasgow North Denmark Reykjavik Sea O Copenhagen 11am Paris begins cancelling northbound flights Noon Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick suspend all flights Eyjafjallajökull Stansted O Hamburg Grindavik VATNAJÖKULL Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Heathrow Poland Amsterdam Vestmanaeyar Ocean Gatwick Germany Katla 2pm All commercial flights in UK suspended until at least 6am on Hofn Paris O North American plate France 4,000 600,000 Surtsey O Main disrupted airports Vik Friday By 5pm Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands have also Eurasian plate flights disrupted yesterday travellers stranded suspended all flights Why aircraft can't fly Milesr 12 The big bad sister Ozone layer Engine becomes clogged with glass and rock dust and shuts down Microscopic particles of volcanic ash, left, are drawn into jet engine E10 A massive eruption could result if the two Ash cloud 32,000ft- 58,000ft Eyjafjallajökull's neighbour is the much larger and much more dangerous Katla magma systems link Commercial aircraft 35,000ft Katla is 1,512m high; its last major eruption was in 1918. It normally erupts every 40-80 years Mount Everest 2 29,000ft Eyjafjallajökull Katla