Alaska Volcano Erupting

13 posts / 0 new

Mon, 2009-03-23 10:34

remind

And the temperature has dropped already here in northern BC.

Quote:
Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted four times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emission in nearly 20 years.

Residents in the state's largest city was spared from falling ash, though fine gray dust was falling Monday morning on small communities north of Anchorage.

Ash from Alaska's volcanos is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems.

The ash can also causes problems in planes.

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, were being sheltered.

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 Alaska Volcano Observatory.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/alaska_volcano

Mon, 2009-03-23 10:37

HeywoodFloyd

This may have a good consequence. Prince George BC has been expanding its airport in order to position itself as a refuelling stop for cargo planes on the Asian routes. Most of that business goes to Alaska now. Perhaps this will send some business Canada-wise.

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:13

remind

Interesting aside heywood, and I suppose PG airport gets no less snow and ice bound than do Alaska ones.

PG is buried under snow at the moment, I have not seen so much snow there for decades, if ever. If the snow melt in the mountains here continues such a fast melt and meets with the melting PG snow, it again is not going to be a good scenario for flooding.

The temperature here has dropped about 5 degrees since the Volcano's eruptions, when such a decrease was not expected/predicted. We were quite surprised upon waking this am, and did not realize why until we heard the news.

Oh and congratulations on being a new father!!!

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:18

HeywoodFloyd

My family in PG sent me photos. That snow dump was nuts. The kids love it.

And thanks Remind! :)

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:19

Jingles

We can stop the eruption by appeasing the vulcan god with a virgin.

Finally, Jason Kenney will be good for something.

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:34

remind

HeywoodFloyd wrote:

My family in PG sent me photos. That snow dump was nuts. The kids love it.

And thanks Remind! :)

Driving up Hwy 16 is weird, there are literally walls of snow over 6ft high on either side, and the banks of snow in PG are too.

And your quite welcome, what gender is it?

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:40

Boom Boom

Jingles wrote:

We can stop the eruption by appeasing the vulcan god with a virgin.

Finally, Jason Kenney will be good for something.

My favourite post of the day!

Mon, 2009-03-23 11:44

Noise

I wonder where the ash will blow...good chance Nova Scotia will see some of it within the week.

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:02

HeywoodFloyd

remind wrote:
Driving up Hwy 16 is weird, there are literally walls of snow over 6ft high on either side, and the banks of snow in PG are too.
And your quite welcome, what gender is it?

I remember those banks of snow from being a kid, and shoveling the driveway when the snowbanks there were six feet tall. Also that the streets were six feet narrower in the winter due to the snowbanks.

Babwood is a beautiful girl, born Feb 21 at 1:30. She is adored by her older brother and sister. Mom and dad are rather short on sleep but very happy. She loves to sleep all during the day and wake up after her 11:00pm feeding and stay awake until 3:00am or so.

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:38

#10

remind

Aw.... a night bunny, glad to hear you are happy! :)

I have not seen snow like this heywood since I have been, in and abouts PG, and that has been on and off since 1974.

Tue, 2009-03-24 17:27

#11

Noise

[url=http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1203]... blog[/url] with some info on this eruption. We're at 6 eruptions now apparently.

As far as climate effects go:

Quote:
You'll notice from the list of eruptions above that all of these climate-cooling events were from volcanoes in the tropics. Above the tropics, the stratosphere's circulation features rising air, which pulls the sulfur-containing volcanic aerosols high into the stratosphere. Upper-level winds in the stratosphere tend to flow from the Equator to the poles, so sulfur aerosols from equatorial eruptions get spread out over both hemispheres. These aerosol particles take a year or two to settle back down to earth, since there is no rain in the stratosphere to help remove them. However, if a major volcanic eruption occurs in the mid-latitudes or polar regions, the circulation of the stratosphere in those regions generally features pole-ward-flowing, sinking air, and the volcanic aerosol particles are not able to penetrate high in the stratosphere or get spread out around the entire globe. Redoubt is located near 59° north latitude, far from the tropics, and thus is unlikely to be able to inject significant amounts of sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere. Furthermore, the previous 1989 - 1990 eruption of Redoubt (Figure 3) put only about 1/100 of the amount of sulfur into the air that the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo did, according to the TOMS Volcanic Emissions Group. We can expect the current eruption of Redoubt to be similar in sulfur emissions to the 1989 - 1990 eruption, and have an insignificant impact on global climate.

I'm still trying to find a site that tracks where the particulate from this eruption is travelling.

Tue, 2009-03-24 17:37

#12

HeywoodFloyd

remind wrote:

Aw.... a night bunny, glad to hear you are happy! :)

I have not seen snow like this heywood since I have been, in and abouts PG, and that has been on and off since 1974.

I remember 1981 being a mad snow winter. So crazy the city gave out "I survived the winter of 1981" certificates. 1978 (I think) was another one. I also remember 1988\89 as being bad for the snow piles on the roads but the snowfall itself wasn't horrible.

Tue, 2009-03-24 17:51

#13

remind

I missed the winter of 81, I moved to the coast in 1980 for a while. I do remember 1978 though, and there was not this much snow and a hellva lot of black ice. I was pregnant and driving into PG all the time. ;)

And noise there is no doubt it is having a climatic impact, temps are much cooler over the last 3 days and not from a weather system, and indeed, I think we are getting ash downfall here right now. As there are particulates falling that look like snow, with no actual snow clouds present.