Alaska's Mt. Redoubt Has Erupted

alaskana98 writes "Alaska's Mt. Redoubt volcano has erupted 3 times, with the first event starting at 10:38 PM Alaska standard time. The ash cloud is estimated to be higher than 50,000 feet. So far, only light ash fall is predicted for areas north of Anchorage."

Comments

Correction... 4 NOT 3 eruptions...

[denzacar]

NOT from TFA:

Alaska volcano Mount Redoubt erupts 4 times

By MARK THIESSEN - 40 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted four times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles high into the air, but the state's largest city has likely been spared from any ashfall.
"The ash cloud went to 50,000 feet, and it's currently drifting toward the north, northeast," said Janet Schaefer, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The first eruption, in a sparsely area across Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula, occurred at 10:38 p.m. Sunday and the fourth happened at 1:39 a.m. Monday, according to the observatory.

The wind patterns were taking the ash cloud away from Anchorage, toward Willow and Talkneetna, near Mount McKinley, North America's largest mountain in Denali National Park.
Geophysicist John Power said no cities have yet reported any ash fall from the volcano, but noted that it was still early.
Using radar and satellite technology, the National Weather Service is predicting ash to start falling later Monday morning.

Dave Stricklan, a hydrometeorogical technician with the National Weather Service, expected very fine ash.
"Just kind of a light dusting," he said. He said the significant amount of ash probably dropped immediately, right down the side of the volcano.
"The heavier stuff drops out very quickly, and then the other stuff filters out. There's going to be a very fine amount of it that's going to be suspended in the Atmosphere for quite some time, but nothing to really affect anything such as aviation travel. The heavier stuff will filter out," he said.

Still, Alaska Airlines on Monday canceled 19 flights in and out of the Anchorage international airport because of the ash.
Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage told only essential personnel to report to work. The Air Force says 60 planes, including fighter jets, cargo aircraft and a 747 commercial plane, are being sheltered.

The 10,200-foot Redoubt Volcano, roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, last erupted during a four-month period from 1989-90.
But the volcano became restless earlier this year. The observatory had warned in late January that an eruption could occur at any time.
Increased earthquake activity over the past 48 hours prompted scientists to raise the alert level for Mount Redoubt on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, 40 to 50 earthquakes were being recorded every hour.
A steam plume rising about 1,000 feet above the mountain peak was observed Saturday.

Re:It's not Russia, but...

[JustOK]

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
Fox News says it erupted tomorrow.

Re:It's not Russia, but...

[necro81]

In truth, Sarah Palin almost certainly can see this from her house. Mt Redoubt is only about 100 miles from Anchorage, and a lot of the intervening distance is the open water of Cook Inlet. On a clear-ish day, one can see Denali (20,320 ft) from Anchorage, and that's over 100 miles away. A 50,000 foot tall ash plume will certainly be visible - once daylight arrives, anyway. I can only imagine what the view will be from the many towns on the east coast of the Kenai peninsula, where they'll be able to look right across Cook Inlet to the volcano.

[to be technical, Sarah Palin lives in Wasilla, which some consider a suburb of Anchorage, even though it's an hour away by car]

Re:Send in Al Gore

[Samschnooks]

It's different. Those greenhouse gases are all natural; therefore, they're safe and healthy. Why I expect the next time I walk into Wholefoods, they'll have canisters with the gas output from the volcano.

I may even market it in an infomercial: "Volcano Gas! The natural male enhancement! For women too! You can have an Earth Shattering Happy moment with your partner!"

I'm on my way to film commercials with that smiling couple!

Re:haha

[Reality Master 201]

No he doesn't; If 8 years of Bush has shown us anything, it's that conservatism means never having to consider the possibility you're wrong.

Re:Meanwhile

[eln]

Jindal was right! We don't have to monitor volcanoes, just wait for them to erupt and the news media will monitor them for us! Who wants to monitor them when they aren't doing anything interesting anyway? That would be like monitoring weather patterns out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean...boring and useless.

Link to a story

[Matt Perry]

Here's an actual story about what is happening.

Correction... 5 NOT 4 eruptions...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting 5 eruptions here

/Former resident of Eagle River, AK
//Saw Mt Redoubt the last time it erupted.
///Well, at least until the ash obscured the view.

Not at the moment, she's on her knees

[Barsteward]

praying for forgiveness for upsetting her god...

Re:Not at the moment, she's on her knees

[cthulu_mt]

You had me at "on her knees".

Re:Send in Al Gore

[T Murphy]

Throughout history there have always been those crying "end of the world". Many of them cooks and manipulators.

Note to self: when someone says the world is ending, do NOT try their soup.

Re:15 240 meters

[JimR]

Don't forget the British use feet for aviation

And I thought we used wings...

Re:Send in Al Gore

[Doc Ruby]

Why should you care at all how much energy Gore uses, if none (or little) of it causes Greenhouse pollution? Do you demand that we all live worse, even if we don't have to?

Gore is a leader because he leads. He took political risks - and real political damage - for years while he was ahead of public opinion. Now that the evidence is so overwhelming that even bad leaders like Bush admit the problem Gore has been working to solve while they've been working to cause it, Gore is widely recognized as that leader because he helped get the public to accept the science. Though the public is so hard to lead that even an example of a rich guy living well without causing the harm he's working to avert isn't good enough for some people.

Re:What I want to know...

[ThePsion5]

Can Governor Sarah Palin see it happening from her house?

And if she does, does this make her a qualified Vulcanologist?

Re:Send in Al Gore

[DavidTC]

Wasn't one of the points of his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" that everyone needs to do their part to conserve?

No, it was not. At all. I've watched it. The point of his documentary is convince people there's a problem and that if we ignore it we'll all in trouble. Full stop.

Now, at the end of the movie, during the credits, there's a list of 27 things you can do, which is the very first time suggestions are aimed at people instead of governments. It really isn't the point of the documentary, and it isn't Al Gore saying them, and it is during the credits.

18 of them boil down to 'talk to other people and your government leaders'. That's right, even 2/3rds of the suggestions actually aimed at viewers of the movie don't have anything to do with changing people's energy usage.

As for the rest: Three are transportation suggestions, one is planting trees, one is recycling. There are only four that are vaguely applicable to houses:

'Switch to renewable sources of energy.', which Gore does, paying a premium to do so.

'Buy energy efficient appliances & lightbulbs.', which he's stated he does, at least with CFL lights, we don't know about the rest.

So what is left that he possible doesn't do:

'Change your thermostat (and use clock thermostats) to reduce energy for heating & cooling.', which we don't know if he does.

'Weatherize your house, increase insulation, get an energy audit.', which he has done, at least in the energy audit. (And as it's a new house, it's hard to imagine it's poorly insulated.)

You'll note 'live in a smaller house' is not on that list.

Al Gore has been turned into some sort of uber-strawman by the right, where they imagine he's suggested they all live in tree houses. To recap: His presentation in the movie doesn't suggest any changes for any people to make at all, and even the tack-on-to-the-credits list of things for people to do is mostly 'make other people aware of what's happening, and make politicians aware that you're aware.'