THE ISLANDIC VOLCANO

By: Felipe Argote

Everyone talks about the Islandic volcano. Probably due to the intricacy of venturing the pronunciation of his name. The volcano Eyjafjallayokull stopped European air traffic for over a week. But is not the first time an Icelandic volcano caused difficulties for Europe. In 1783 and 1784 the volcano Laki killed a third of the population of Iceland and caused many deaths, with a drop in temperature in Europe, but its effect on monsoon winds caused a temperature rise in Egypt up to two degrees Celsius, which had the effect of reducing the elevation of the ancient Nile, essential for the harvest of the valley. An estimated one sixth of the population of the Nile Valley died of starvation as a result of the eruption of Laki.

The Eyjafjallayokull is located on a glacier of the same name only 120 kilometers from the island's capital Reykjavik. Iceland is a frozen island northwest of England. Just over 100,000 square km on 2006 only managed to surpass the fpopulation of 300,000. With a gross domestic product per capita of $ 63000.00 is one of the countries that enjoy a higher standard of living in the world.

Some people remember Reykyavik as the capital of the chess world since the American Bobby Fischer won the world title there Boris Spasky into Russian in 1972 amid the Cold War, shortly before the end of the Vietnam War. In the same the country American chess player died in January 2008 where he lived as a political refugee after being accused by the U.S. government of treason for traveling to Yugoslavia in 1992 to play chess against the same Spasky in exchange for three million dollars.

Iceland is currently governed since 2009 by a woman named as unspeakable as the volcano that erupted recently: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Icelandic Prime Minister, born in 1942 is the first leader of the world in recognition of the LGBT community. Openly lesbian is legally married to the journalist and playwright Jonina Leósdóttir Icelandic, born in 1954. His political career began from working as a flight attendant and became the leader of the union. Before becoming Prime Minister she was elected for the parliament, then vice president of parliament, president of the Social Democratic Party and Minister in four governments.

Eyjafjallayokul volcano had not erupted since 1821. Despite the drawbacks raised in its environs, where there was a need to evacuate about 600 people and damage on some sheep farms from the effects of certain gases which can be toxic, as well as damage to the vegetation, the biggest drawback caused by the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallayokull is Air Navigation in Europe. The cloud of ashes raised from the volcano stopped air operations in nearly 60% being the worst airline crisis in European history and affecting six million passengers at airports in 20 countries in Europe.

All this because the ash particles that after being expelled to 10 miles above the volcano are left floating in the atmosphere and can cause serious damage to the fuselage of the aircraft in danger of stopping the aircraft engine in flight. As I write this note the Icelandic volcano is still pouring ashes on the old continent.