The Volcano Has Blown
Remember a few months ago, one of our volcanoes, Mt. Redoubt, was making international headlines because it was showing signs of wanting to go? Well, around 10pm last night it went. Since then it has erupted 5 times. The ash cloud is waaaay up at 60,000ft and though the wind is carrying it north (inland), it is also a bit west so it is hugging the Alaska Mountains, avoiding Anchorage and much of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, where I live. Going up the Susitna River drainage, the area of Trapper Creek is getting ash and its expected to hit Talkeetna and even Cantwell later today. It's only a millimeter or so of ash but even that tiny amount is more than enough to shut everything down since engine air filters cannot handle fine volcanic ash.
Right now they are expecting the wind to go west and as long as it stays that way, the more populated areas will be fine. If it goes east then I'll have to shut down my computer and you won't hear from me for awhile.
A bit o' Alaska Volcano Trivia
"With 44 historically active volcanoes -- about 10 percent of all the active volcanoes in the world -- Alaska is no stranger to eruptions. On average two volcanoes erupt here each year." - Anchorage Daily News
Our last big eruption was Mount Saint Augustine, an island volcano south of Cook Inlet. That was in 2006 and it pretty much didn't hurt anyone.
Before that was Mount Spur, which is only 75 miles from Anchorage. It blew in 1992 - I had the fortune of being across the inlet from it in Kenai and saw the whole big eruption happen: the while mushroom cloud that slowly turned into a smear of black across the western sky. Anchorage was thrown into darkness. We stayed in a campground in Kenai until it was safe to drive home; Anchorage had 4 to 6 inches of ash covering everything! It was amazing.
Redoubt last blew in 1989 and while it didn't dump as much ash as Spur, it was a constant eruption for 5 months. I just remember we didn't have outdoor recess for awhile and when we were outdoors we had to cover our faces.
* * * *
That's all for now. I'll keep you posted.
ETA: Apparently Redoubt has its own Twitter feed via the Alaska Volcanic Observatory: http://twitter.com/alaska_avo
Right now they are expecting the wind to go west and as long as it stays that way, the more populated areas will be fine. If it goes east then I'll have to shut down my computer and you won't hear from me for awhile.
A bit o' Alaska Volcano Trivia
"With 44 historically active volcanoes -- about 10 percent of all the active volcanoes in the world -- Alaska is no stranger to eruptions. On average two volcanoes erupt here each year." - Anchorage Daily News
Our last big eruption was Mount Saint Augustine, an island volcano south of Cook Inlet. That was in 2006 and it pretty much didn't hurt anyone.
Before that was Mount Spur, which is only 75 miles from Anchorage. It blew in 1992 - I had the fortune of being across the inlet from it in Kenai and saw the whole big eruption happen: the while mushroom cloud that slowly turned into a smear of black across the western sky. Anchorage was thrown into darkness. We stayed in a campground in Kenai until it was safe to drive home; Anchorage had 4 to 6 inches of ash covering everything! It was amazing.
Redoubt last blew in 1989 and while it didn't dump as much ash as Spur, it was a constant eruption for 5 months. I just remember we didn't have outdoor recess for awhile and when we were outdoors we had to cover our faces.
* * * *
That's all for now. I'll keep you posted.
ETA: Apparently Redoubt has its own Twitter feed via the Alaska Volcanic Observatory: http://twitter.com/alaska_avo