January 26, 2009
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Volcano Rumbles
Mount Redoubt has been elevated by the Alaska Volcano Observatory to watch level orange after seismic activity was recorded over the weekend.
Redoubt is not one of the friendly little volcanoes in that chain that connects the Aleutian Islands to the Alaska Range. Some of those pretty snow-clad cones across Cook Inlet just sparkle in the sun and occasionally shake a little and send out some steam clouds. Redoubt, Augustine and Spurr have gone way past that during the years I have lived here.
There have been winters here when cutting down through the snow would reveal bands of brown of varying thickness and darkness, from ash that fell with the snow. Ash clouds have obscured the sun, made breathing difficult and hazardous, and clogged air filters in cars. When the wind comes up here, the dust it picks up is a mixture of glacial silt and volcanic ash deposited over many centuries.
Unlike Hawaii, where many people live on volcanic slopes where lava flows can take out their houses, Alaska’s volcanoes are relatively remote from population centers. Here it is the airborne ash that is the biggest hazard, and other than some villages near the volcanoes, that is greatest for the towns on the Kenai Peninsula. By the time an ash cloud reaches the Susitna Valley, it is diffuse and not likely to dump more than an inch or so of ash on us.
I’m not complaining. An inch or so is enough.
Comments (5)
I’ve been reading a book about Krakatoa, which erupted in 1883 I believe. The power of what they are capable of is scary and amazing.
@nevragn - I hope we don’t get any eruptions like that one. That was the Year with no Summer.
Living in the midwest all my life, I cannot imagine an inch of ash on the ground, or ash clouds blocking out the sun.
I should think it would be more than enough!
Once again, I am intrigued and somewhat fascinated with this place you inhabit. So different from my own world. An inch could make a real mess, I am sure.