Alaskan Volcano on the Verge of Erupting

**Ace** · 01-29-09, 01:37 PM

Alaska volcano expected to erupt soon - CNN.com

**Xiphos** · 01-29-09, 02:32 PM

That will be interesting.

**irishmick** · 01-29-09, 03:13 PM

Ace, is it anywhere near you?

**Ace** · 01-29-09, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by irishmick

Ace, is it anywhere near you?

Yeah about 100 miles, we've been getting some decent quakes lately. If this goes off, air travel will be suspended for quite awhile.That means that all supplies for anchorage will have to come by barge, which will make prices go through the roof and limit supply...

**irishmick** · 01-29-09, 03:21 PM

Wow...that sucks. Hopefully air traffic wouldn't be down for too long. I'm sure it'll take some time to clear though. I'm just wondering if it would be anything like St. Helen's (that's the only thing I have to compare it to) where you'd get covered with ash...

**Ace** · 01-29-09, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by irishmick

Wow...that sucks. Hopefully air traffic wouldn't be down for too long. I'm sure it'll take some time to clear though. I'm just wondering if it would be anything like St. Helen's (that's the only thing I have to compare it to) where you'd get covered with ash...

Well a year or so ago there was an eruption several hundred miles out and that stopped air travel for quite awile if I remember right. The airlines don't want to risk even the slightest chance of getting ash in the engines. Not that I would be happy if a natural disaster happened, but I wouldn't mind the mad overtime that would ensue...

**Ace** · 01-29-09, 03:29 PM

Here's a link to the observatory page... Alaska Volcano Observatory

**Retdetsgt** · 01-29-09, 03:43 PM

Yuk. I had to work through Mt St. Helen's antics in 1980. That was miserable. They said they didn't know how long it would continue, might be years. I wouldn't have stayed up here if it had.

Good luck to all those up there. That's just plain nasty.

**MacLean** · 01-29-09, 04:07 PM

I remember the ash and mayhem from St. Helens, and I was only 8.

**Ace** · 01-30-09, 04:08 PM

Looks like we're about at show time...

Originally Posted by AVO as 0f 1147 AKT

Seismicity at Redoubt has increased markedly over the last 20 minutes. Clear webcam views and pilot reports indicate that the volcano has not yet erupted.

**Retdetsgt** · 01-30-09, 04:27 PM

Good luck. I just read an article about it. They keep referring to the "ash". That "ash" is nothing but tiny glass particles. Brush it off your car and it'll scratch the hell out of the paint. Nasty stuff..... People here vented their car intakes into the car's interior. If you didn't, your engine got ruined, the air filters couldn't stop the glass ash, it was too fine.

**Ace** · 01-30-09, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Retdetsgt

Good luck. I just read an article about it. They keep referring to the "ash". That "ash" is nothing but tiny glass particles. Brush it off your car and it'll scratch the hell out of the paint. Nasty stuff..... People here vented their car intakes into the car's interior. If you didn't, your engine got ruined, the air filters couldn't stop the glass ash, it was too fine.

The air filters didn't work? I didn't realize it was that fine...

**Retdetsgt** · 01-30-09, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by Ace

The air filters didn't work? I didn't realize it was that fine...

Maybe they're better now, but I'd get a K&D air filter that uses oil on it. There wasn't a big rash of cars dying from it here, but there was in Yakima. We used the oldest police cars when the ash was the worst, but were told to sit in firestations and were only given priority 2 calls and higher only. Some cabs and other vehicles that were on the street a lot got damaged. It depends on how bad it gets.

We had moron out running in that stuff with paper masks on......

**MacLean** · 01-30-09, 06:04 PM

They fitted the WSP cars with some special kits and double filters - all for naught.

All the cars run in ash are going to be destroyed.

**Morris** · 01-30-09, 06:42 PM

Redoubt blew on Dec. 15, 1989, and sent ash 150 miles away into the path of a KLM jet carrying 231 passengers. Its four engines flamed out.

As the crew tried to restart the engines, "smoke" and a strong odor of sulfur filled the cockpit and cabin, according to a USGS account. The jet dropped more than 2 miles, from 27,900 feet to 13,300 feet, before the crew was able to restart all engines and land the plane safely at Anchorage. The plane required $80 million in repairs.

It will do a number. Even today, in Eastern Washington, there are areas I still walk in in which I kick up ash just underneath a fine layer of topsoil.

**Retdetsgt** · 01-30-09, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by maclean

They fitted the WSP cars with some special kits and double filters - all for naught.

All the cars run in ash are going to be destroyed.

The only thing that seemed to work was venting the intake to the interior of the car. Some guy in Yakima came up with that.

Staying inside is a pretty good defense. The ash itself is fairly heavy and it's takes a decent wind to stir it up, it's not like dust. I had to clean out my gutters before they came crashing down and they weren't that full.

We didn't get it nearly as bad as Washington. We got the second eruption when the wind was blowing South. That got us about an inch or two, which was livable. I do recall having to gently hose off cars, if you rubbed at all, you scratched the hell out of the finish.