Volcanic perspective

And we were worried about Redoubt.

In Iceland this week, a volcanic eruption has forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and more or less shut down air travel in Northern Europe.

It's been the lead story on NYTimes.com today, an importance I don't recall Redoubt (or Augustine or Spurr, for that matter) ever rating. The photos look impressive, all right, but I wondered -- is this a bigger eruption than we see in Alaska, or is it just a bigger deal because of the number of people affected?

Enter U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Rick Wessels, who told me Iceland is a "much different tectonic setting" than Alaska. There, volcanic eruptions tend to happen along huge fissures, he said. And as in Alaska, volcanoes in Iceland tend to encounter quite a bit of ice and snow.

"Having that much water in the system tends to make more explosive eruptions," Wessels said. "You get lots of these explosions" as well as "pretty good-sized ash plumes."

And yes, a big issue in Iceland's case is that there are just lots more people living much closer to the problem (as opposed to Alaska, where we just store oil at the base of an active volcano).

"Compared to how far away most of us in Alaska are from our volcanoes, it's a bit more intimate in Iceland," Wessels said. His understanding is that there are farms and communities located pretty close to lava flows from the Iceland volcano. And the massive ash cloud doesn't have far to go before it starts to affect other countries.

"There's millions more people in close proximity to Iceland," Wessels said. "Our ash clouds have to travel" further before they start to mess with travel and transportation. So far the Iceland eruption has closed down airports in France, Scandinavia and the U.K. -- delaying up to a million travelers in England alone, according to an economist interviewed by the New York Times.

And in case you missed the history lessons that made the media rounds during Redoubt's extended rumblings last year, here's what you need to know: Volcanic ash plus jet engines equals disaster -- or can, anyway. In 1989, a KLM Boeing 747 flying into Anchorage encountered a cloud of ash, which melted as it entered the plane's engines, essentially coating them with molten glass. All four engines quit and the plane plummeted toward the earth -- for 12 minutes, according to Anchorage Daily News coverage at the time.

Twelve minutes.

Fortunately, the pilot was able to get the engines back on line, the plane under control and the passengers safely to the ground.

But -- and I know this is old news, and I'm far from the first person to point this out, but I can't help but think it bears repeating -- in case you're reading, Gov. Bobby Jindal, this is why we need "something called volcano monitoring."

Contact Maia Nolan at maia(at)alaskadispatch.com.