Eruption in Alaska
ANCHORAGE,
Alaska – Trace amounts of ash and the smell of sulfur reached an Alaska
city after the latest eruption of a volcano in the Aleutian Islands.
Bogoslof (BOH-gohs-lawf) Volcano erupted late Monday night. The ash … 14
hours ago
Story from: FOX News
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Washington Times
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Ktoo
begin quote from:
An
hours-long eruption of Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands dropped
a small amount of ash on nearby Unalaska overnight Tuesday from a …
Ash falls in Unalaska after Bogoslof eruption
- Author:
- Updated: 8 hours ago
- Published 17 hours ago
An hourslong eruption of Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands
dropped a small amount of ash on nearby Unalaska overnight Monday from a
massive plume that drifted over the Pacific Ocean.
Laura Kraegel, a reporter at Unalaska public radio station KUCB, said that ashfall from the eruption was relatively light Tuesday morning.
"It's less than a millimeter but there's a sulfurous smell, so it's definitely apparent," Kraegel said.
Kristi Wallace, a geologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, said
locals were sending photos of the ashfall, which was still considered
"trace" because it hadn't exceeded a millimeter.
"I would not describe it as a continuous layer, so when it falls on
snow you can see the snow in between and when it falls on cars it
appears as droplets," Wallace said. "I don't think what they got is
anything anyone could take out a ruler and measure."
The National Weather Service's Anchorage office received reports of
trace ashfall in Unalaska from the plume by Tuesday morning. Joshua
Maloy, an aviation meteorologist at the office, said the eruption, which
began at 8:20 p.m. Monday according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, had apparently ended by 3 a.m. Tuesday.
"It had been in a continuous state of eruption for several hours but at
the present time, as far as what we can tell from our satellite
imagery, it has stopped erupting," Maloy said.
Bogoslof, on an island about 60 miles west of Unalaska, has been
intermittently active since mid-December. An eruption last week sent an ash cloud over Unalaska, but no land-based ashfall was reported.
An advisory
issued by the Unalaska Department of Public Safety just before 6 a.m.
mentioned the ashfall, as well as a series of tips on how to cope with
more ash should it arrive.
Jennifer Shockley, the department's deputy director, said ashfall in
town occurred during the predawn hours and tapered off by about 8 a.m.
"We can look out across the bay a couple miles away and see that the
formerly white snow is now a dusty pale gray," Shockley said. "It seems
to be fairly widespread in our area."
About a dozen flights to or from Unalaska over the past 10 days had
been canceled due to previous ashfall in the region, according to
Shockley.
In its 1 a.m. statement on the eruption, the observatory reported that
the eruption was accompanied by increased seismic activity.
"Numerous lightning strikes have been detected in the vicinity of
Bogoslof from the resulting volcanic cloud," AVO staff wrote. "At (12
a.m. Tuesday), a continuous volcanic plume extends for a distance of 125
miles towards the southeast over Unalaska Island at an altitude of
about 20,000 to 25,000 feet."
AVO geologist Cheryl Searcy confirmed that the eruption had apparently
ended based on infrasound readings from Bogoslof. Locals were continuing
work to measure the Unalaska ashfall, however.
"They were uncertain if it was continuously falling now, and we have
observers putting out whiteboards to determine if it was still falling,"
Searcy said. "The winds are not as strong as is usually seen, and
because of that the ash is moving a bit more slowly."
AVO on Monday increased the volcano's aviation color code to red and
its alert level to warning, its highest indicators of further potential
activity.
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