Tina Sang Mr. Lugt Block E One World Essay The Eruption of the Unpronounceable Volcano On March 20th, 2010, Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway at the time, found himself stranded in New York as a recent grand-scale volcanic eruption grounded all flights to Europe. With nothing but his iPad, Jens Stoltenberg told CNN he tried manage the situation in his home country halfway across the globe, while the ominous volcanic ash continued to spread through Northern Europe, threatening the health of his citizens. "There are good means of communication, I have close contacts with my office all the times, and there are a lot of activities in Norway where we try to reduce the consequences of the volcano in Norway," Stoltenberg told CNN. They had shut down all airways because of the voluminous ash clouds spurting from Iceland’s deathly volcano. Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, began erupting on March 20, 2010 with a basaltic fissure eruption that evolved into an explosive, phreatomagmatic event. Clouds of fine volcanic ash dispersed over mainland Europe, triggering an unprecedented closure of airspace. The massive plume of volcanic spread over much of northeastern Europe, extending to northern Italy and east to Ukraine. The ash, composed of superfine particulate matter, had the ability …show more content…
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that the Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue six days after the initial eruption. On days when disruptions were greatest, losses reached $400 million per day. As many as 1.2 million passengers a day were affected. Later analysis concluded that some 107,000 flights were canceled during a 8 day period representing 48% of the total air traffic. On certain days as much as 80% of total flights were canceled. All in all, around 10 million passengers were affected by the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud. (Bye, Science