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Martin Brown · 15-04-2010, 02:55 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote:
In article ,
mark wrote:
Just been and had a sniff.
No smell of sulphur detected here in Norfolk or any volcanic dust.
Bright,
sunny, clouds with about a third blue sky.
You know that it's excellent fertiliser?
I didn't. Presumably if it is dark the ground will warm up and be of benefit
to plants.

It won't be that heavy, from the sound of it, except perhaps up
in Shetland.

The reason is that it contains lots of useful trace elements.

Slightly too much of some of them. It is fine as a moderate dusting but
bad in excessively large amounts and at short range.

Most notably sulphur dioxide and soluble fluorides in volcanic ash are a
real problem in Iceland itself and can cause crop failures and devastate
agriculture. As also happened in Europe when Laki went pop.

It could be very nasty if as expected the bigger badder Katla erupts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7070239.ece

Regards,
Martin Brown