Monday, March 23, 2009

Sound of a Volcano Erupting








No ash fall at the house today. Total of six eruptions. The biggest occurred just before 5 am this morning and sent ash up to 65,000 ft. But since the wind took the ash plume straight north towards Talkeetna, we both went to school/work as usual. That biggest one was loud enough for us to hear in the house and it woke us both up. Sounded like a shotgun going off outside the house with three successive booms, and that's with us being more than 100 miles away from the volcano! The sounds travel well along the inlet and up into the hayflats, so we heard it louder than folks who are much closer in Anchorage or on the Kenai. Others around us along the bluff heard it as well. Pretty "neat" to be able to hear a volcano erupt. 20 years ago when Redoubt last erupted it lasted on and off for several months. So we may be able to collect some ash eventually, but not today. Skwentna (pronounced "Sweat-nya") is only about ~50 miles west of us and they had half an inch of ash before the day was done.
The first chart above shows the first three eruptions - then it cuts off during the biggest just before 5 am because that one (the one we heard) destroyed all the data instruments on the mountain. The last two pics show the mountain before and after eruptions, so you can see the difference. Still haven't seen the top of the mountain due to ash and cloud cover, so we'll have to wait to see if any of the top collapsed, but it looks like it has so far just melted the glacier/snow melt off the lower half.

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