Also, we haven’t felt any earthquakes here on the island, but there is ash in the snow. On the local news last night there was a man who had been stuck in Anchorage for three days, trying to get to Kodiak. Era Aviation cancelled at least 21 flights over the weekend, among other things this has ground our USPS to a stop. I haven’t received anything but local mail since last week.
The Beeb hasn’t overlooked you. Even though the rather dry headline leaves a lot to be desired. Were I a subeditor there, I would have had something like:
Holy shit! Big-arsed volcano getting frisky in Alaska
Light to none yesterday. Across the bay Seldovia and Halibut Cove both reported some more moderate amounts. You could see the haze and the ash cloud sitting right on top of them. I have had ash collectors out since the first eruption. I don’t know how much I have collected though because there is snow in it also. I will melt it out when this thing is done.
ALASKA VOLCANO OBSERVATORY
INFORMATION RELEASE
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 9:10 AM AKST (1810 UTC)
AUGUSTINE VOLCANO (CAVW#1103-01-)
59.3633°N 153.4333°W, Summit Elevation 4134 ft (1260 m)
Current Level of Concern Color Code: RED
Augustine volcano has been in a state of continuous eruption since 14:30 AKST (2330 UTC) January 28. Over the last 24 hours there have been no large seismic pulses like those known to have recently heralded ash plumes rising to over 25,000 ft above sea level. There have been a number of smaller discrete seismic signals that likely correspond to smaller ash-producing explosions. The number of these smaller events has increased slightly over the last 8 hours.
Visual observations from an overflight yesterday, as well as satellite data, show that an ash-bearing plume continues to emanate from the volcano. Overnight, National Weather Service radar showed that plumes did not exceed 13,000 feet above sea level and drifted generally north. For up-to-date Ashfall Advisories and wind trajectories, please refer to the National Weather Service website: http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/augustine.php.
Clouds obscured satellite views of the volcano during the past twelve hours, thus no thermal anomalies were detected during this interval.
This is exciting! I was wondering, how long until an appreciable amount of ash makes it’s way to Alexandria, VA and messes with our weather? Can any of you Alaskan dopers make a reasonable guess?
It’s not at all unusual. There are usually several letting off steam. Since the entire Aleutian Chain is volcanic, this happens more often than you would think. We also routinely have hurricane force winds out on the coast that don’t get reported, and 4-5 Richter earthquakes that go pretty much unnoticed. More recently:
