Mar 23 2009
in which mt. redoubt finally goes boom
…and once again, it was at night. When I can’t see a thing. Thanks for harshing my potential buzz there, Mr. Mountain.
Uh, right, so that sounds like…weird. Whatever. The point is, Redoubt went off at 10:38 tonight yesterday, again at 11:02, and yet again at 12:14. That may be slightly out of date because I got those times of an Anchorage Daily News article published online at 11:30 p.m. and last modified…well, about 45 minutes ago five minutes ago, dang, when do these people sleep? The most recent edit about doubled the length of the article, it looks like. (Can I also say, one, I feel deep pity for the poor writer who probably got hauled out of bed to write this little breaking-news piece and slap it up online, and two, it amuses me more than it should that the previous edit of the article said Redoubt went up at “about 10:38 p.m.” because I’m sure everyone cares that you didn’t specify down to the second.)
Long threatening Mount Redoubt erupted three times tonight sending an ash cloud an estimated 50,000 feet into the air, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported. … Winds are carrying the ash plume north toward the Susitna Valley, and an ash advisory has been issued for the area until 4 a.m., the National Weather Service said.
Ash is not expected in Anchorage or Wasilla at this time, the Weather Service said. …
“It looks like (Anchorage) might dodge the bullet,” Alaska Volcano Observatory geophysicist Peter Cervelli said.
An FAA official at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport early Monday said there were no immediate plans to close the airport.
Article also has a handy little sidebar with facts about the volcano. For instance: Redoubt is a stratovolcano. I did not know this. I am not sure at this point what a stratovolcano is, and if it were not 1:30 in the bloody a.m. I would look it up on Wikipedia. Maybe tomorrow later today.
Other links of potential interest: the Alaska Volcano Observatory (will it interest anyone to know that in my head I automatically pronounced “observatory” the British way, although this may have more to do with watching A Bit of Fry and Laurie than with having been in England? No? Okay then) has a Twitter feed, for anyone wanting to keep up-to-date on Redoubt’s rumblings (…now I’m alliterating. Clearly I need sleep). There’s also the webcam positioned seven miles from Redoubt, but at the moment it’s showing total blackness because it’s, you know, 1:30 a.m. (I had a hopeful theory that it was black from ash covering the lens because that would be more interesting, but most of the other webcams are black too. Le sigh.)
I’ll see if I can get any pictures tomorrow–of the view from my house, if there is one, but more likely from ADN or the observatory since they’ll be better. And to think I was just going to whine about the new snow…
(Image credit: Anchorage Daily News. That photo is of the much smaller eruption March 15.)
