Posted on 04/20/2010 4:55:46 PM PDT by Kartographer
Just over 200 years ago an Icelandic volcano erupted with catastrophic consequences for weather, agriculture and transport across the northern hemisphere and helped trigger the French revolution.
The Laki volcanic fissure in southern Iceland erupted over an eight-month period from 8 June 1783 to February 1784, spewing lava and poisonous gases that devastated the island's agriculture, killing much of the livestock. It is estimated that perhapsa quarter of Iceland's population died through the ensuing famine.
Then, as now, there were more wide-ranging impacts. In Norway, the Netherlands, the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, in North America and even Egypt, the Laki eruption had its consequences, as the haze of dust and sulphur particles thrown up by the volcano was carried over much of the northern hemisphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Read it found it very interesting..
Wow!
I see one huge difference between now and then. We are already on the beginning of a lull in sunspot activity and a cooling trend is well under way. Last summer was crazy cool and last winter was harsh. Real harsh. Now this ash cloud is supposed to spread all around the world and cause even more cooling.
This could be bad. We may all be hoping and praying algore is right by this time next year.
Al Gore will claim it is all global warming in the end.
- only delayed.
When the “global warming” glasses on, everything is a fulfillment of the man made disaster. (oh wait, was that terrorism?)
Good read, thanks for the ping.
At times the road ventured southerly into the places where a blanket of ash covered the ground. There, everything, in all directions, looked much like the surface of the moon. It took several days to wash the stuff off of the road surfaces. Today, some 30 years later, you can still find traces of the ash in the branches of trees in the forests.
If that volcano does what it did last time it erupted, many will long for the good old days.
This eruption might take several years to clear up the mess it is making.
It could be a big game changer, that’s for sure!
All together, now...one, ...two,... three:
BUSH’S FAULT!!!!!!!!
There, fixed it.
Not to be picky, but I was there, too. Waiting to ship to EOBC at Ft Belvoir, to report on 20May80.
I am rereading Following the Equator by Mark Twain and he mentions the Mississippi freezing at Memphis and ice as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas, this was during his days as a riverboat pilot.
It’s interesting that you should ping me to this. I’ve had this nagging thought in the back of my brain since reading up on what actually happened in Iceland with that volcano, that this isn’t going to be over in a month... not by a long shot.
Sounds like something from that James Burke TV Series “Connections.”
I picked a different “Black Swan event” in my third novel, (new madrid quakes) but if the 2nd volcano blows for 8 months, it might do the same job on the world economy.
I saw either this article or one like it a few days ago, but it’s good to keep it alive.
The last time this volcano erupted, the eruption went on for a year.
It may not have been a continuous eruption, but even if it only shuts down European air travel for one week out of every month for the next year, that’s not going to be good.
Also, the longer it erupts, the more ash builds up in the atmosphere, blocking more and more sunlight, leading to (nobody tell al-Gore) more cooling.
And that’s assuming the other, bigger (Katla?) volcano doesn’t erupt, which is not a good bet.
If Katla blows, all bets are off. The Black Swan will be flying.
Possibly a whole flock of them.
Time to start looking into what grows well (or ‘least poorly’) in cool, rainy weather.
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