A volcano erupted in Iceland about a week ago named Eyjafjallajoekull ,which means island-mountain in the Icelandic language. It is located under a glacier of the same name. It is considered one of Iceland's smaller volcanoes, even though it turned out to be very powerful. The mountain had a great amount of ash, smoke, and steam thousands of feet into the air.The heat from the volcano also caused for part of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier to melt, causing severe flooding. Hundreds of people who live in nearby towns were forced to evacuate because the eruption was so dangerous.The exploding mountain had not done anything for nearly 200 years which led people to believe that everything was safe. The last time it erupted was from December 1821 to January 1823.
A powerful volcanic eruption hit Iceland last week and it is still having an effect an other countries such as Hong Kong and Kenya. The volcano was so powerful that it blew winds that spread and exploded on the mountain to the skies across much of northern Europe, this created unsafe flying conditions, which does not allow people to travel anywhere. There are unsafe conditions in the skies, air traffic in the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and other countries that are close by, these countries airlines had to be completely shut down for almost a week because it was so unsafe from all the dust and pollution in the skies.When the air traffic was stopped in Europe it had an effect in airports around the globe. Flights that were headed to the countries effected by this volcano eruption were also cancelled because it was too dangerous, this left millions of travelers stranded with nowhere to go. More than 95,000 flights have been canceled, costing multiple airlines millions of dollars. Businesses that depend on airplanes to ship their goods have also been affected. Kenya, a country in Africa, has a huge fresh vegetable, fruit, and flower industry. Businesses there export most of their goods to grocery stores throughout Europe. Since there no planes have been able to get into or out of European airports for more than a week, Kenya's fresh produce companies were unable to move their products. Most of the perishable items that need to be shipped quickly have been left to rot. The ashes in the air began to clear up on Monday,however, it will take many more days for airlines to deal with the ashes and pollution so flights remain canceled leaving travelers in the middle of nowhere. Some countries have begun to lift flight restrictions, even though the volcano in Iceland still continues to erupt, Is that even safe for airplanes to fly while the volcano is still erupting? Glass particles in volcanic ash can clog plane engines and cause them to shut down. This why flying through volcanic-ash clouds is very dangerous, still some countries are not listening to this and putting the lives of many people at risk. In Iceland people should have been more prepared because this eruption was so big that it was able to have most flight airlines shut. Countries that are close to volcanoes or any type of natural disaster should have a back-up plan in case anything like the Eyjafjallajoekull ever happens again. The safety of the people needs to be thought about because it is unfair for someone to have to risk their life because a country has no idea how keep their nation safe.
