« Ladies and gentlemen, we will be beginning our decent into Heraklion International Airport, the captain has turned on the fasten seat-belt sign. In preparation for landing, your seat belt must be fasten, your seat must be in an upright position… » is the speech that most the ACGT members have not heard when trying to reach the Consortium meeting planned in the capital of Crete 19-21 of April. Indeed, a sequence of major volcanic events at Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland affected flights all across Europe, preventing ACGT partners to reach the project management meeting venue.
The situation was the following: the project coordinator stuck in Roma in transit from Chicago to Crete, a scientific coordinator actually present in Heraklion (as the meeting is planned in his institute) and the remaining partners dispersed in different locations worldwide. The only partner who was able to reach Heraklion was coming from Japan (Hokkaido University). The discussions have taken place in small group, between FORTH and Hokkaido University, while others started the challenging choice for a new date. By avoiding the numerous public holidays in Europe in May and June, the meeting has been finally postponed to June 14-16, 2010, in the same location : Heraklion.
The Institute of Earth Sciences and the Icelandic Meteorological Office detected no ash or magma at Eyjafjallajökull on May 24 or May 25, concluding that the eruption is dormant. Let’s hope to have this « sleeping situation » remaining until the meeting …
