Officials appeared to be responding to the ash with a radically different approach than last year, when European aviation authorities were sharply criticized for closing large swathes of airspace in response to the April 2010 eruption of another Icelandic volcano. Many airlines said authorities overestimated the danger to planes from the abrasive ash, and overreacted by closing airspace for five days. Thousands of flights were grounded, airlines lost millions of dollars and millions of travelers were stranded, many sleeping on airport floors across northern Europe.

Though meteorological officials predicted the ash to miss the European mainland, recent news reports claim that the Civil Aviation Authority expects disruption to UK flights.

We here at the Monitor followed last year’s eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano very closely, posting about it’s amazing power with pics and video, about airports closing and how it was one of the top 10 disasters of the past decade, according to Zurich.

Stay tuned as we continue to post about Grimsvotn’s most powerful eruption in 100 years and its effects on travel and business. And visit The Atlantic for some amazing images of the eruption.

1. 9/11 – 2001
2. SARS – 2003
3. 2003 U.S. / Canada power outage – 2003
4. 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami – 2004
5. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma – 2005
6. Financial crisis – 2008
7. China earthquake – 2008
8. H1N1 pandemic – 2009
9. Iceland volcano – 2010
10. Floods in Europe and Pakistan – 2010

I have to admit, I would have probably completely forgotten the 2003 blackout if I was playing Family Feud and had to come up with all 10 — and I even wrote a cover story for Risk Management magazine about it.

Obviously, catastrophes that weren’t included like the Haiti earthquake, Cyclone Nargis and Bam earthquake were horrific tragedies, but the insurance penetration in those areas is so minimal that the ghastly human tolls did not have a large affect on the industry.

Let’s all dearly hope that the next decade is tamer.

Ninth Ward. New Orleans. Post-Katrina.

Larry King: “Now, let me get this straight. First, Iceland’s economy collapses, and you ruin all the banks in Europe. Now, your volcano erupts, and you ruin all the airports.”
Bjork: “That’s right. We’re a tiny rock that is destroying the world.”

Later…

Larry King: “Now, Bjork, has anything positive come out of this.”
Bjork: “Yes. Iceland is now the world’s number-one exporter of volcanic ash. Previously, our main exports were reindeer bones and giggles.”

We also get an appearance from Sir Richard Branson and lullaby to the volcano from Bjork. Well played, SNL. Almost as good as the time Bjork joined Charles Barkley on Iconoclasts.

Here is the Times‘ graphic showing just how widespread the airport closures have been.

Over on their The Lede blog they also have video of the ongoing Eyjafjallajökull eruption, showing exactly how all that ash got into the atmosphere. Truly amazing. But truly troubling as well — and with no timetable for when flights may be able to resume.

Volcanologists had no reliable prediction of how long the eruption would continue, as travelers scrambled for train reservations, rental cars and hotel rooms. Others simply searched for comfortable benches in airports, which were considerably calmer and emptier than on Friday as passengers realized that no flights would be going in or out.

Europe’s three largest airports — London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris-Charles de Gaulle — were all shut on Saturday, with officials hoping that flights could resume sometime Sunday or, more likely, Monday.

Yikes.

The shutdown, among the most sweeping ever ordered in peacetime, forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and left airplanes stranded on the tarmac at some of the world’s busiest airports as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can severely damage airplane engines — spread over Britain and toward continental Europe.

Obviously, this whole event is interrupting business throughout the EU and that is a big pain in the tuckus and people are upset and concerned and companies are losing money and yadda yadda yadda…

But much more importantly … LOOK, GUYS, IT’S LAVA … pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Below is a photo of an amazing eruption earlier this month by Eyjafjallajökull. I have no idea how to pronounce that. But it sure is gorgeous. Check out the Boston Globe‘s photo gallery for more awesome — both in the traditional sense and in cool-kid-vernacular — photos.

An eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano earlier this year. (Photo: Ulrich Latzenhofer via the Boston Globe)

UPDATE: Even better, here’s video of an eruption in late March.

UPDATE II: And, OK, fine … here’s some actual info about the insurance and business implications of the Eyjafjallajokull disruption from our friends at National Underwriter. (h/t @travel_facts)

Gordon Woo, lead catastrophist for Risk Management Solutions, said insurance implications from the Eyjafjöll volcano eruptions could include payouts from Iceland’s national natural catastrophe insurance fund—which covers volcanic eruptions and glacial floods—if there is damage.

Additionally, he said business interruption for the aviation industry could be triggered due to the temporary closure of airspace in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia as a precaution over the airborne ash plume.

Aviation and travel insurers will be hit by the cost of several days of flight cancellations, Mr. Woo noted.

Floods from the melting glaciers will likely cause river levels to rise and potentially cause damage, RMS said, citing Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

The ash cloud affect, said Bill McGuire from the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, can cause major damage to aircraft by clogging engines and causing them to flame out, and by scouring windscreens so as to make them opaque.

The article also mentions that the last eruption by this volcano last 12 months — so there could be ash problems again in the future. Stay tuned.

And head over to National Underwriter for even more insights from Woo and McGuire.

Iceland has not had much good publicity in the past two years, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon.

Back in 2008, Iceland’s government and economy essentially collapsed, leaving the country’s 304,000 residents in despair after what is now called the largest banking collapse in economic history. Now into 2010, the country is still reeling from the financial crisis that severely weakened the value of its currency, caused a 90% drop in capitalization of its stock exchange and decreased its GDP by 5.5% in the first six months of 2009.

But Iceland’s residents were not the only ones hurting.

The millions of foreign depositors who had chosen the country’s banks as a safe-haven for their savings were faced with the grim reality that every penny that had deposited there was now frozen. Though Britain and the Netherlands stepped in to refund the savers, Iceland is still in debt to those two countries.

And today, news reports claim that the country’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to sign a bill to repay a $5 billion debt to Britain and the Netherlands.

The Icelandic banks and their online subsidiaries with their high interest rates had attracted many savers from Britain and the Netherlands. When the banks collapsed 15 months ago, the British and Dutch governments stepped in to refund their savers who lost money. Britain and the Netherlands then negotiated a deal with the Icelandic government to be reimbursed for the money they paid out, and that bill was passed by the Icelandic parliament. Last week, though, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson refused to sign the bill.

Grimsson references the Icelandic Constitution, stating that a referendum must now happen since he has received a petition signed by a quarter of the country’s population, which urged the president to renegotiate the terms of the repayment. The loan carries a 5.5% interest rate and some feel that the if Iceland were to repay with the current terms, it could potentially cause a national bankruptcy.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, Iceland’s finance minister, understands that the issue is extremely unpopular among residents, but that in order to move forward and continue with economic restoration, the country must meet its obligations.

Whether a referendum happens or not, Sigfusson says, there is something deeper going on in Iceland–a moving away from what he calls the culture of neo-liberal greed and a returning home to its Nordic roots.

Whether or not Iceland will be able to dig itself out of this financial, political and economic conundrum and return to its Nordic roots will remain to be seen. Taking into account the country’s recent track record and its diminutive size in both population and world power, the odds are against it.

• Department of Homeland Security Fail: “Tahaya Buchanan, an American fugitive who’d been on the run for more than two years, dodging a national arrest warrant for insurance fraud, has spent her years underground gainfully employed by the Department of Homeland Security.

• Our homeland security watchdog is doing something right, however, as DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday announced a “first of its kind federal-state cybersecurity partnership” between the department and the state of Michigan. As someone who reads dozens of horrible press releases every day, I can assure you that this is one of the least informative press releases ever written (and, not for nothing, DHS could probably use some proofreaders), but the gist of this thing seems to center around some sort of collaborative IT system to uncover malware and cyberattacks — or something.

• Norway’s Risk Management Association just became the 20th FERMA member.

• An earthquake early warning system in California is possible — and may be a reality in the foreseeable future, according to new research presented yesterday at the American Geophysical Union yesterday. Best part: They’re going to call it the “ShakeAlert” system. And in related news, the USGS plans to use Twitter to gather earthquake accounts from affected citizens.

• The SEC is rethinking its earlier proposal to increase the number of surprise audits for investment advisers. “In May, the SEC proposed that investment advisers undergo a surprise audit once a year to make sure that their customers’ assets are really there … Now, the SEC is fine tuning the plan and considering not requiring the some 6,000 registered investment advisers who simply deduct fees to comply with such an exam.”

• A UK-oriented look back at the regulatory landscape of 2009 and a look forward to 2010.

• With the financial collapse bankrupting Iceland and putting once-low-risk economies like those of Greece and Latvia on the ropes, Ellen Brown looks at how even the developed world nations of the EU are now bucking IMF debt-repayment protocols. And as former fat cats like Dubai have shown, today’s global climate means that even formerly nonvolatile nations need to be given more scrutiny when it comes to credit risks. “Dozens of countries have defaulted on their debts in recent decades, the most recent being Dubai, which declared a debt moratorium on November 26, 2009. If the once lavishly-rich Arab emirate can default, more desperate countries can; and when the alternative is to destroy the local economy, it is hard to argue that they shouldn’t.”

• Chewbacca and game theory. Wookies always make good risk managers.

• The video streaming site Justin.tv is under scrutiny for its inability to prevent its users from illegally uploading copyrighted content. Ultimately, this is the same fight that has been going on regarding digital intellectual property since Napster and, later, Kazaa gave rise to widespread music piracy across college campuses in the late 90s. YouTube faced similar scrutiny and many lawsuits and, like Napster, has used the “we’re not doing anything wrong — it’s our users” defense. But where Napster (and other, more brazen sharing sites like The Pirate Bay) failed, sites like YouTube have (thus far) been able to sidestep major legal recourse by having procedures (which, if we’re being honest, are only minimally effective) that ensure the removal of content if it is reported as infringing copyright. Getting back to the main story…Now under the threat of legal action, Justin.tv told its side of the story in front of the House Judiciary Committee this morning. ”Justin.tv calls on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which they claim should provide them with a safe harbor for copyright-infringing content that appears on the website before they or the appropriate right owners get a chance to remove it … The startup states that it aims to bring live video into the mainstream much like Flickr, The Huffington Post and YouTube have done for online images, news and video clips. The question is: are they really doing everything they can to fight piracy?”

• “One in five Brits are stressed, depressed or just hungover.” According to Aon, a lot of UK employees weren’t actually sick on the day they took their last sick day.

• A list of comical legal case names, including “Batman v. Commissioner, 189 F.2d 107 (5th Cir. 1951), cert. denied 342 U.S. 877 (1951)” and “United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, No. 05-56274 (9th Cir. Mar. 17, 2008).” More than anything, this whole thing reminds me of this guy, who is sort of a personal hero of mine.

Find an interesting link? Email me any stories, videos or images you come across and would like to see included. Or just follow me on Twitter @RiskMgmt and pass it along that way.