Icelandic Volcanic Ash

I recently was given a sample of volcanic ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull Volcano. This is the volcano that caused air traffic interruptions in May 2010 throughout Europe due to ash drifting several kilometers high in the atmosphere. The ash has a dark gray appearance and the particle sizes varied greatly. I examined the ash under a trinocular microscope at 45x and 90x magnification. Large particles of the ash had a diameter of 0.72 mm, medium sized ash particles were around 0.24 mm, and small ash particles were 0.05 mm and smaller. I used Helicon Focus to DOF (Depth of Field) Stack the microphotographs for clarity.

Measuring ash particle sizes using calipers.

DOF Stacking

Volcanic Ash Pile

More Volcanic Ash