In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
You know that it's excellent fertiliser?

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.

Like most things, even water.

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.

For a year or so, yes. Iceland isn't a major source of worry on a
global scale, though. Consider what would happen if Yellowstone
went up (it's due, though dormant) or something on that scale.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.