Jing Project "Tell A Story in 5 Frames"

View my screencast at: http://www.screencast.com/t/NzVhNjQyYT

Here is the script as well in case you want to read along. Enjoy!

The Eyjafjallajokull Caldera is located on one of Iceland's smaller ice caps located in the far south of the island. It is situated to the north of Skogar. Initial eruptions of the volcano lasted for a period of siz days in April 2010 with activity continuing into June.

Sesmic activity begain showing up as early as 2009 and fradually increased in intensity until March 20th 2010, wen a small eruption was triggered.

Although these eruptions were very small compared to other volcanic activity, its powerful blasts resulted in ash and fire causing major disruptions to air travel across Europe. In fact, debris from Eyjafjallajokull created the largest disruption of air travel in Europe since WWII.

In this first photo, you can see the rise of teh ash clud which ultimately reached a height of 9 kilometers or 30,000 feet.

Although Iceland is an isolated Nordic island, arctic winds drove the great ash plume to the south shutting down most major airports across Europe including Glasgow's International Airport shown in the sign here in picture 2. Additional airport closings included: London, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Madrid and Rome.

This next photo captures the beginnings of the second phase of the eruption which started on April 14. An estimated total of 250 million cubic meters of pyroclastic material was ejected. the viscous material shown here in picture 3 is being ejected from the caldera which stands approximately 1,700 meters or 5,500 feet high. Although this volcano has erupted several times since the last ice age, the second phase was raqted as a class 4 eruption. Though large, it pales in comparison to the class 5 eruption of Mount Saint Helen's in 1980 or the 1991 class 6 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

As the activity ceases, picture 4 shows a fissure or vent opening, approximately 150 meters or 500 feet in length, releasing the less violent, viscous lava at a temperature of 1,000 degrees celsius or 1,800 degrees farenheight, in a slow moving stream.

By May 21st, almost 2 months into the eruptions, the second phase has subsided to the point that no further lava or ash was produced. Although the ash and lava effects will be felt far into the future, picture 5 shows a welcome end to the day, as a sun sets on the ash filled skies over Northern Europe.