The Krak was ninety....

The so-called Ring of Fire around the Pacific comprises over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It forms an arc stretching from New Zealand, along the eastern edge of Asia, north across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and south along the coast of North and South America.

One of the best-known eruptions of modern times occurred at Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883, killing tens of thousands of people and pulverising two thirds of the island.

But it is dwarfed by the most powerful eruption in recorded history, Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in 1815.

During this eruption, rivers of hot ash rolled down the 13,000ft-high volcano, killing around 10,000 people on the island alone and pumping vast amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. In parts of Europe and North America, the following year, 1816, became known as "the year without a summer". Frosts killed off crops in New England and Canada; Ireland was hit by a famine.

"Fortunately [there are] no volcanoes in Ireland, but in Europe the Italians are very well aware of the dangers of volcanic eruptions," explains Professor Alan Jones, head of geophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies .

"Vesuvius is going to blow again at some time – it is not an 'if' but a 'when' – and there will be another Pompeii (ABOVE). There is nothing we can do about it, except be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.

"The past is the key to the future. There is absolutely no reason to think that the future will be any more or less active than the past. The processes that shape the earth operate on very long timescales compared to human lifetimes."

Consular network jumps to aid of stranded nationals

The Department of Foreign Affairs' consular crisis centre dealt with over 2,600 phone calls from distressed members of the public who were left stranded overseas as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

However, while it provided "limited emergency funding" to several groups who were in "dire financial and medical need", a spokeswoman for the department declined to say how much money was handed out.

"One of the main problems initially related to the question of medicines, for those on prescription drugs. The advice and assistance given by the crisis centre and our embassies in helping people to get access to medicines and medical treatment for people with specific health needs, and on the faxing of Irish prescriptions to those stranded abroad, appeared to work well," she said.

"The centre was staffed by trained volunteers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and their role was to provide support, reassurance and advice to those trying to get home from overseas. It also, in many cases, actively assisted the most vulnerable with their travel arrangements and informally facilitated groups of Irish people to work together to get home.

"For those stranded on the European continent who had an urgent need to return to Ireland, the staff provided practical advice and information about over-land options, including international train connections, car rental options and contact information and the latest availability information, pertaining to ferry operators direct from France or via Britain."

€28m lost in grounded exports

Last week's disruption to airports could end up costing Irish exporters up to €28m by the time the backlog of goods is fully cleared towards the end of this week.

John Whelan, chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association, said Ireland typically exports around €95m worth of goods by air a day. Almost two thirds of these go to the US, with the remainder going to places such as Asia, Australia, South Africa and eastern Europe.

But "virtually nothing" is exported by air to the UK and nearer parts of Europe, as these are served by land and sea transport routes.

Around half of the total goods transported by air are pharmaceutical products, with nearly a quarter made up of high-end computer equipment.

Whelan said the system had generally responded well to the difficulties which the lack of access to air transport caused, with exporters for example couriering goods by sea and road to those European airports that remained open.

"By and large our understanding is we met most customer and client needs," he said. "But in terms of norms of stocking costs and additional transportation costs, we're looking at something like €18m in cost impact.

"The problem is it's probably going to take us another three to five days to completely clear the backlog, and we could run into another estimated €10m in costs to clear the backlog."

More fire from the land of ice?

Further eruptions from Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano which caused this month's chaotic scenes at airports around the world, are a distinct possibility in the near future, although it is impossible to say when these will occur and how long they will last, according to a leading Irish volcanologist.

Dr Quentin Crowley, a lecturer and volcano expert in Trinity College Dublin's department of geology, told the Sunday Tribune that Eyjafjallajökull has in fact been periodically active over the last 800,00 years or so.

He said eruptions from Eyjafjallajökull have been followed by eruptions from a larger Icelandic volcano called Katla on some previous occasions.

"Previous significant eruptions [of Eyjafjallajökull] have occurred in 1821-1823, as well as the 17th and 10th centuries AD," Crowley said.

"It is true that eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (ABOVE) has preceded that of Katla on some previous occasions. This happened in 1918 and to a certain extent in the 1950s with smaller sub-glacial eruptions.

"Katla appears to have major eruptions every 40 to 80 years or so. Historically these eruptions have lasted from anywhere between a couple of weeks to over 100 days… Monitoring stations at Katla at this moment in time are not showing any signs of an imminent eruption.

"It is possible that Eyjafjallajökull could continue to erupt every now and again over the next year or so, but it is impossible to be certain. The last significant eruption of Eyjafjallajökull was in the early 1800s and we did not have aircraft then.

"There are other active volcanoes around the world, but a lot of these are in remote areas and do not interfere with busy air traffic flight paths. I think a lot has been learned from the past week and it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are implemented in relation to volcanic hazards and aviation."

Ryanair prepares for claims

It is too early to say how long customers of Ryanair will have to wait to receive refunds of legitimate expense claims – but the airline has taken on 100 extra staff at its Dublin head office to cope with expected demand.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said the company estimates it lost around €6m a day – or €42m over the seven days of disruption. This includes the costs associated with reimbursing passengers and compares with a figure of between €15m and €20m in losses for Aer Lingus, and €1.3bn for the global airline business.

Around one million Ryanair passengers were disrupted. But the airline expects only a relatively small percentage of these to make claims for expenses. This is because around a half would have been on outbound flights which were simply cancelled, while many others would have made alternative arrangements to get home rather than waiting for a replacement flight.

"When something like this happens it is difficult to say how long it will take to address. A proportion of people contacting us will be people venting their frustration, others will be people with actual refund requests, and some will be pure chancers," McNamara says.

"I would say to people to bear in mind there will be a lot of people claiming. Our advice is don't send in your original receipt as these can get lost, and be very clear in your communications with us. List the expenses you had and attach copies of your receipts.

"The claim will be matched against their travel period. We will know when they flew out , when they were due to come home, and they got home."

He added that the company hoped to pay out reimbursements of legitimate expense claims as soon as possible, but "I'm not going to put a time period on it at this early stage".

Lessons from the east

Flights may be able to operate if they can avoid airspace contaminated by volcanic ash, but they should definitely not fly through it, according to a spokeswoman for Japan Airlines, which operates in a country which has 108 active volcanoes.

"Safety is the number one priority… and thus only if it can be ascertained that it is safe to fly based on data, we will then take into consideration factors such crew schedule/duty hours and aircraft schedule, before making a final decision to operate or not," its spokeswoman says.

"Japan experiences a lot of hazardous meteorological phenomenon such as snowfalls, typhoons, low pressure systems causing strong wind/heavy showers and so on. At times airlines can be forced to cancel up to hundreds of domestic flights a day.

"The difference with the recent situation in Europe is the sheer number of affected airlines and routes that ply those airports and airspaces. It is a lot more complicated as it involves many more airlines and authorities, and a larger volume of traffic is disrupted."

She said the airline does not make any specific modifications to its aircraft to allow them to fly through volcanic ash clouds.

"Aircraft should not fly through thick ash clouds in any situation because they can greatly damage the engines, endangering the lives of the people onboard. They are also costly in view of the maintenance required and the time that the aircraft will be out of action while being checked," she added.

Ferries and hotels fly in the face of volcano death cloud

Mark Hilliard

THE volcanic ash and its aftermath may have grounded airlines around the world but some Irish businesses seemed to be flying in the midst of the chaos.

Accommodation, transport and service industries all benefited from the thousands of stranded people, although some played down the apparent opportunities.

Ferry companies said that, while they certainly experienced an increase in custom, it did not necessarily represent an explosion in profits.

"We got benefits. We got extra business, more people than we would normally carry, but the majority were foot passengers and the bulk of them were travelling one way, Dublin to Holyhead," said a spokes-man for Irish Ferries.

"There wasn't a huge fare bonanza but the real benefits were beyond that. On-board spending would have been a little extra, and we hope that, in the long-term, a lot of people who would probably never have been on a car ferry maybe now will say, let's travel by ferry."

The hotel industry said that it experienced a swell in business as a result of people getting stuck in Ireland, but this was offset by cancellations costing an estimated €20m.

John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), said: "While some of our members experienced an initial increase in business as guests extended their stay, this was negated by the fact that there were cancellations and a cessation of bookings as overseas visitors changed their travel plans."

In the same spirit, Dublin's taxi drivers said that a boom in port business was only possible at the cost of an abandoned airport. "Normally there are cars working on the ferries and then if you throw the ones from the airport down there it just divides it up," said a spokesman for the National Taxi Drivers Union (NTDU), who added that around 2,000 cars
generally serve Dublin Airport. Obviously [the extra business with the ferries] helped to some degree but anything helps in a crisis."

There were other reports of companies which sought to take advantage of the opportunity from the air cancellations, from a car rental company which set up a temporary office in Dublin Port, to a company that supplied conference call facilities to those unable to attend meetings abroad.

In the sporting world, the erupting volcano resulted in disappointment for some, opportunity for others. The Tipperary hurling team, which, according to the Hogan Stand website had been due to fly out for a training camp in Spain, had to revise its plans and head for a stay at Carton House, Co Kildare, instead.