I have watched wit interest as the unpronounceable volcano has spewed an ash cloud over Europe, and over my home here in England. It has amazed me the way the air traffic has come to a standstill because of the dangers of volcanic ahs being sucked into the engines of jets, and the silicon in the ash melted and cooled before leaving the engine. The dangers of four stalled engines over the Atlantic, or even over densely populated Europe are obvious!
But it is not the first time in my life a volcano has done this where I have lived. When Mount St. Helens erupted in the 80’s I lived near Denver, Colorado, and I distinctly remember going out to the car and sweeping ash off the windshield with my hand. That ash, as I remember it, appeared to be mostly composed of burnt wood ash.
So far, I have not seen the same sort of ash here in the UK. The ash here appears to be in the form of a dust could hanging in the air like a sometimes thick haze that makes it almost impossible to see the Malvern Hills, 8 miles away.
The most obvious conclusion is that the Cascades are thickly forested, while Iceland is not.
Just a minor observation by someone privileged to see tectonic forces at work reshaping our world in two significant events.