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."

Re:It's still dark in Alaska

[zappepcs]

Apparently this is what the inside of a layer of ash looks like at this time of morning.

Global cooling on its way?

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...

[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:Correction... 5 NOT 4 eruptions...

[Anonymous Coward]

2009-03-23 02:04:08
As of 2:00AM March 23, 2009, AVO has recorded FOUR large explosions [...]

2009-03-23 04:37:08
Another large explosion is occurring at Redoubt.

(which IS from TFA)

Re:Pork

[fahrbot-bot]

To be fair... I think the US Congress labels any spending that benefits a single state or group as "pork". So, ya, volcano monitoring is pork, but useful pork in my opinion - especially as ash clouds can affect more than just the source state, though this may not be the case given the size of Alaska...

Not all government pork is bad - insert joke here - ...

Link to a story

[Matt Perry]

Here's an actual story about what is happening [sfgate.com].

Correction... 5 NOT 4 eruptions...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting 5 eruptions here [adn.com]

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

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

[cashman73]

And the Republicans want to eliminate money for volcano monitoring [cnn.com]?!?! Great idea!

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

[eggoeater]

>In truth, Sarah Palin almost certainly can see this from her house.

She might be able to see a vague outline of ash in the sky today, but as the ash blows north any further viewing will be obscured.
You can see Denali from Anchorage because it's mostly flat in between the two.
The view south from Anchorage however is mostly mountains; seeing anything off in the distance is unlikely.

BTW, the drive from Anchorage down the Kenai to Homer is staggeringly beautiful. I highly recommend it.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

still can't tell Tina Fey from Sarah Palin, huh.

Re:Send in Al Gore

[DavidTC]

Oh, you're one of those morons who thinks Al Gore is telling you to reduce your energy use, when in fact he's never suggested anything of the sort.

Gore is attempting to cause societal changes via things like mass transit and fuel efficient cars and large-scale carbon reduction by investing in alternate energy.

I love how people just imagine that Al Gore is out there frowning at their energy usage, when in reality he could give a flying fuck as to how much energy you use.

This is, of course, ignoring the fact that the idea that Gore's house is exceptional wasteful is a deliberate lie. It's not wasteful at all for a house that size in that part of the country. It is slightly larger than other houses in that part of the country, but that's simply because he works from there.

But, hey, prove me wrong. Go ahead and point to a single example of Gore stating how individual people should cut back to reduce emissions. (And when I say 'cut back', I mean it. Suggesting people switch to CFLs is the opposite of cutting back, it's spending less money for the same thing.)

Re:Send in Al Gore

[Doc Ruby]

Because "stable" is relative. You probably notice the seasons changing, too. But we've been in a stable range for the past 12,000 years or so, neither ice age nor steamy jungle (or parched desert), which is unusually long. We're becoming unstable not from any natural increase in Greenhouse gases or other factors, but from the dramatic and recent increase in accumulating Greenhouse gases from human activity (a dramatic and recent increase in the human population has contributed). The human activity contribution has multiplied many times over, tipping the natural balance from the old stability towards some new global climate different from the old one.

Re:Send in Al Gore

[e1618978]

We are still in an ice age, we have been in one for 10 million years so far. We are just in an interglacial period for the last 10,000 years. And the current warm period is caused by Milankovitch cycles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age [wikipedia.org] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles [wikipedia.org]

Re:How much CO2 would this dump into the atmospher

[Anonymous Coward]

Volcanic Eruptions throw particulates into the
atmosphere and thus have a cooling effect. The
amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere
due to all volcanism world wide per year is
uncertain but estimated to be far less than one
half of one percent of the contribution due to
human activity.

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

[darth dickinson]

Dude, your side won. Move on.

Re:Send in Al Gore

[Ogive17]

Wasn't one of the points of his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" that everyone needs to do their part to conserve? His idea is everyone else needs to conserve, he'll use what he wants to and just pay extra money to "offset" his luxurious lifestyle.

I don't care if 10,000 kwH/month is normal for a house that size in Tennessee, it's excessive for Al and Tipper when Al's claim to fame (these days) is global warming.

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.'

Re:15 240 meters

[dunkelfalke]

not worldwide. russian aviation is fully metric.