Watch continues on Alaskan volcano
I know. It has nothing to do with Maryland weather. At least not yet. But the rising seismic activity and eruption watch now underway in Alaska at the Redoubt volcano brings to mind the days before Mount St. Helens blew in 1980, as well as the spectacular eruption at Redoubt almost 20 years ago.
That's the one in the Redoubt photo above. The image was one of a series shot by J. Warren, on April 21, 1990. Looks like a nuclear blast, doesn't it? The ash from a December 1989 eruption of Mt. Redoubt was sucked into all four engines of a 747 airliner bound from Amsterdam to Tokyo. All four were snuffed out. But unlike the recent bird-strike incident in New York, pilots of the KLM airliner managed to restart two engines (after dropping 12,000 feet in eight minutes), and they landed safely. At the airport in Anchorage.
The incident occurred despite the then-new, satellite-based system of ash cloud warnings for aircraft. If Redoubt blows again, all airspace around the volcano and downwind may be closed.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has a fascinating Web site, where anyone can keep watch over the volcano and track its rumblings.
Here's the Web site. There are details on the current activity here.
You can link to a live Redoubt Web cam here. And, you can follow the activity via Twitter, here.
And there is a gallery of photos of the 1990 eruption here.
Comments
Hi Frank,
Awesome image. Nature at her best fury.
Other than the spectacular western sunsets how do big eruptions like this affect weather patterns. (Sulphuric acid droplets right ??) Seems like a lot of ash into the northern jet stream might have a dimming cooling affect for at least the northern hemisphere.
Posted by: RavensFlock | February 3, 2009 10:13 PM
Super pic Frank!
I'm up here in Delta Junction Alaska wondering if/when it will blow. Last eruption I was in was when Mt Spurr blew and covered Anchorage. I went outside and saw this large black cloud slowly engulfing the afternoon sky. As the sun disappeared there was a slow rain of tiny ash particles, like sand. For the next several weeks we fought with water shortages from folks trying to wash it all away, along with scooping it from around houses and roads where the cars would kick it up into black clouds again. Airport runways were really tricky and gave the term FOD a whole new meaning.
We're a lot further away this time but preparing nonetheless!
Posted by: Timothy Boyd | February 16, 2009 10:58 PM