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Alaskans Prepare For Volcanic Eruption

Posted by kdawson on from the anchorage-is-downwind dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mount Redoubt, or Redoubt Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of Alaska. The once quiet volcano has begun to roar once again. Its last eruption was in 1989 and geologists suggest that the next one is upon us. Alaskans who lived through the earlier eruption are stocking up on breathing masks and goggles. Starting on Friday, January 23 2009, the level of seismic activity increased markedly, and on Sunday AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and the Volcano Alert Level to WATCH. On the basis of all available monitoring data AVO regards that an eruption similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90 is the most probable outcome. We expect such an eruption to occur within days to weeks." From the AP article: "Alaska's volcanoes are not like Hawaii's. 'Most of them don't put out the red river of lava,' said the observatory's John Power. Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream. 'It's a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,' Power said. The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. 'They use this to polish all kinds of metals,' he said." The server for the Alaska Volcano Observatory appears to be overloaded and is unresponsive.

2 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I have a vague memory of St. Helens by indi0144 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you ever being in an earthquake? those in which you can listen the earth "roaring"? A volcano it's a bit more frightening since earth roars, smells like the Erebus should smell and the sight of a 5 mile high gray cloud makes it apocalyptic.

  2. Re:Let's work to avoid another "Katrina" by wurble · · Score: 5, Informative

    It can't be as bad as Katrina. There are currently over 1,000,000 people in the New Orleans metro area. That's AFTER Katrina; the population of new Orleans literally dropped in half since 2000. And Katrina affected a heck of a lot larger area than just the New Orleans metro.

    The entire state of Alaska has around 680,000 people.

    So while this has the potential to be a major disaster, it will never be anything as bad as Katrina in scale and number of people affected.