As Europe and the U.S. fret over a small eruption in Iceland, a far larger volcanic eruption is taking place in Papua New Guinea.
And unlike the Icelandic volcano, which merely has the potential to reroute trans-Atlantic flights, the eruption of Mount Tavurvur is already causing damage and threatening lives as well as disrupting international air travel.
Mount Tavurvur, which is part of the larger Rabaul caldera, blasted enough ash into the stratosphere on Friday that Qantas Airlines rerouted flights between Sydney and Tokyo, as well as Sydney and Shanghai, to avoid flying through the ash cloud.
Volcanic ash is hazardous to jet engines, and can cause them to fail mid-flight.
The volcano is threatening the town of Rabaul, which was destroyed by an eruption in 1994 and rebuilt. An evacuation order was issued for the town, but not everyone has left.
“People still live here, we have to get on with our daily lives,” Rabaul Hotel employee Susie McGrade told ABC radio. “We’re up on the roofs, cleaning off the ash, we’ve got to save our property, try and get back to normal, so what can we do? We’ve got no where else to go.”
Mount Tavurvur is the most active volcano associated with the Rabaul caldera. It erupted along with nearby Mount Vulcan in 1994, killing five people and destroying large parts of the town. Before that eruption, the city of Rabaul was the capital of the country's New Britain Province, but the capital was moved to Kokopo afterward.
The volcanoes also erupted in 1937, with far deadlier consequences. More than 500 people were killed in that event.
A caldera is a crater-like land feature that is usually formed from an explosive volcanic eruption, and the town itself is located within the caldera, which encompasses Blanche Bay as well. The Rabaul caldera is five miles long by nine miles wide, according to NASA.
Photos of the eruption show lava and ash flying high into the air. They stand in stark contrast to the images from Mount Bardabunga in Iceland, which erupted in a far less hazardous and quiet manner on Thursday night into Friday morning.
#Rabaul #volcano eruption has destroyed crops and gardens. Also left town filled with ash. pic.twitter.com/gyBbkhtu4h— Hubert Namani (@hhnamani) August 29, 2014
Rabaul is a caldera w/ much more of a history of violent, explosive eruptions. Not saying it will be bad, but hazard threat is much higher.— Erik Klemetti (@eruptionsblog) August 29, 2014
Fire & Ice: These 2 volcanic eruptions could not be more different #Bardarbunga in #Iceland & #Tavurvur in PNG #CNN pic.twitter.com/YJykgsfGEj— Mari Ramos (@MariRamosCNN) August 29, 2014
Volcanic eruptions that carry enough ash into the stratosphere, above the typical cruising altitudes of most jetliners, can alter the planet's climate for years. Particles contained in the ash clouds, known as sulfate aerosols, reflect incoming solar radiation and can cool the climate until they break down chemically or are washed out of the atmosphere within a few years. Eruptions like Mount Tambora in 1815 and Iceland's Mount Laki in 1783 both altered the climate.
More recently, climate researchers have found that a series of relatively small eruptions of tropical volcanoes has helped blunt the severity of manmade global warming by slowing the rate of warming slightly.