Iceland declares state of emergency, braces for volcanic eruption [28 min ago] | Hacker News Reader

Iceland declares state of emergency, braces for volcanic eruption [28 min ago]

ft.com

45 pointsbookofjoe21 comments

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As seen from NASA FIRES satellites:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@-22.4,65....

Wow. Great resource.

https://archive.ph/3jsQ0

Is there a possibility of flight disruptions in Europe?

There's a possibility.

Seems more of a risk to transatlantic routes.

I don't know how easy it would be to reroute them though.

Yes, the London region already published a test advisory to verify that all systems are working. It illustrates what a real one could look like: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/vaac/vag/pfxd01_egr...

The northern part of the Atlantic route system (EU-US) goes through there. And big parts of UK airspace could be affected.

Lol, I like it. I kinda wish we'd do that in software status pages too. "This is a test of our emergency status page. This is only a test. It's also the only time you'll actually see red on this page."

There’s always a chance, although the annual eruptions over the past three years had a negligible impact on air travel.

The eruption site is only around 20 km (12 mi) from Iceland's main international airport, Keflavik International Airport. Due to the eruption's effusive nature with little to no ash production, it is not considered a risk to air traffic. [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagradalsfjall

Wasn't there another problem this time, that the eruption site is close to the geothermal plant that powers Keflavik?

At least that would only affect traffic from/to Iceland and not half of Europe though.

Iceland has a small population and a large power grid. They can survive a lot of power generation failing before things like airports start losing power.

The magma dyke under Grindavík extends out under the ocean; if it reaches the surface there, the eruption will be explosive and potentially disruptive to air travel. However, the latest news I have seen says that they currently think it’s more likely to erupt on land, to the north east of Grindavík. The best place to get updates is the Iceland Met Office, https://en.vedur.is/

The Iceland airport is close to this potential volcano, so it's clearly disruptable.

A big Atlantic Air travel disruption like in 2010 is always possible, but real unlikely.

Non-paywall story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67387827

> Thor Thordason, professor of volcanology at the University of Iceland

Whose parents clearly had a sense of humor

I work with a "Jonathan Johnson" so yeah..

Iceland uses patronymic naming [1] so you get a lot of this sort of thing. A child's surname will be their father's name plus a suffix depending on the child's sex. So the son and daughter of Thor will have surnames like Thorson and Thorsdottir, literally "Thor's son" and "Thor's daughter"

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

Iceland still mostly uses "<name of father>{son,dottir}" last names.

Nothing about humor, just a father calling his son similar to himself.

Seems his full name is Þorvaldur Þórðarson.

I thought I heard that Iceland doesn't use patronymic buy uses matronymic names.

That wikipedia page they use matronymic "sometimes"

The same emergency from 2 days ago?

More discussion and good resources in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38225019

Eyjafjallajökull sends its regards.

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