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What are we looking at? >> im not sure. this is geology. this is to say an eruption in geologic terms is a blink of an eye, in human jet travel is huge inconvenience. i can understand why the authorities are playing it on the safe side. you get this ash in the engine, you could really get into problems. you lose two engines at once over a populated area. see, the thing in mount st. helens days, its near seattle, near portland, oregon, but the wind literally blew it the other way. we had bumper s...

Heavily. that area was like a severe dust storm. the big question for authorities, how much is a danger over northern europe given the economic problems its having. of course you dont want to take a chance with an airplane, it is frustrating. thats going to be the discussion thats happening over the next few days. >> nbcs bob bazell, thank you, bob. going on five days since the ash cloud blanketed europe and the volcano is stillvillently erupting. joining me now bill nigh the science guy. how lo...

Based on volcanic dust, has happened before, campbell. >> thats very scary. finally, tom, when do they expect it to clear up? >> thats an excellent question. they still have all the traffic backed up here. all of the huge clouds out in the sides of the volcano, the stuff rushing down the side of it. heres what we know. when mount st. helens erupted in 1980 it spread 540 million tons of ash, so much that roads, schools, hospitals, power plants and airports all had to close. that went on for quite...

Long-term regional or even global effects? whats the most important thing to know about an eruption to know whether it could be that severe? >> those eruptions were quite unusual, they were long-lived, went on for more than a year and erupted voluminous quantities of ash. this is much, much smaller, than those eruptions. several times smaller than the size of those eruptions. the most important parameter is really the duration of the eruption and how much lava and ash are emitted. >> is there an...

Result erupted less than a cubic kilometer. mount st. helens was a tenth of that size. but theyre monitoring it with a va rye at the of instruments. if it were to intensify or grow much larger or give signs it were going to intensify and grow much larger, they should see some signals of that. >> one last question for you just about your own experience. i know youve flown in planes around active value cane knows to view ash and gas plumes from volcanos when theyre going off. weve got footage from...

Does, this turns into a sort of molten glass which then comes out of the back of this engine and there it starts cooling and choking the engine. the dust is also very abrasive so it can do damage simply by flying through it. the bottom line is once that happens the plane can simply lose control and be unable to safely land and do much of anything. weve never lost a plane this way, but there have been planes that have flown into volcanic dust and had very severe problems. now, when will all this ...

>> thats right. maybe some remember back with mount st. helens, flights were diverted away from the pacific northwest because the threat posed when volcanic ash gets into the engine. >> foreign object damage happens and it will clog up the engine just like trying to drive a jet ski through sand or a car through a muddy river. its going to jam them up and these particles adhere to the controls and the moving parts within the engine. >> folks on the ground have to be careful. theyre warning europe...

European flights until tomorrow at the earliest. the country is in red have closed their airspace entirely. the ones in yellow have partial closures. heathrow in london and charles in paris both shut. passengers are stranded all over the world from san francisco to singapore. >> its an absolute nightmare. nobody tells you anything. >> since this is technically an act of god, airlines are not required to refund passengers money or put them up in hotels, though some are. in 1980 when mount st. hel...

Out of the sky. this is nothing to be -- you have to take this seriously. doesnt happen very often. it happened at mount st. helens and mt. pinatubo where planes couldnt fly anywhere where the volcano. >> i want you to listen to a little clip from the pilot who through a volcanic plume back in 1982. listen to this -- >> we were going from perth in western australia, not a very long flight. a very, very dark night. we got across java over the southeast of the indian ocean, and we got this effect ...

There was another volcano that freed gases that turned into smog, smog floated across the jet stream changing weather patterns. crop production fell in western europe, famine spread, fiery sunsets were seen. then 1784 the winter was one of the longest and coldest on record in north america. new england, record stretch of below-average temperatures. on it went, john. is this actually possible again? >> oh, sure. its going to happen again, you know, and, in fact, as i mentioned tambora happened in...