Eyjafjallajökull.
For those lucky enough to know how to say it, it's actually quite a frightening concept.
Eyjafjallajökull. (Ay-ya-fya-tla-yo-kukh) is a volcano located in southern Iceland from which we should have expected such devastation. Eyjafjallajökull has erupted over and over again throughout recorded history, and it was only a matter of time before it finally blew it. And so it did.
It started around the end of last year, when geologists recorded "increased seismic activity" around the volcano. Or, as some people refer to it, the "it's gonna blow" signal.
A few months later, the Icelandic government began evacuating nearby residents before it began erupting in late March. However, far more devastating was the second eruption in mid-April, which spouted the massive ash plumes which shut down airports across Europe. Although ash doesn't seem to be that much of a threat to something as huge as an airplane, it actually can cripple them - ash can clog or damage airplane engines and make it impossible to see. The ash cloud also spread to eastern Canada with cancellations in St. John's International Airport and Gaspé Airport, but didn't spread any further west and service resumed shortly. Some cancellations in European airports left travelers unable to even leave the airport because they didn't have valid visas. Many northeastern European countries decided to make it easier for those passengers affected by the cancellations. Some airports bused the passengers to areas out of the cloud's reach and let them take off from there.
The ash cloud dissipated for the most part, and most airports were started up again by April 21st.
