ALASKA’S MT. REDOUBT VOLCANO IS SET FOR AN IMMINENT ERUPTION. Geologists are expecting IT to blow anytime from now until the next day or so.
The Associated Press reports:
Alaska’s volcanoes are not like Hawaii’s. “Most of them don’t put out the red river of lava,” said the observatory’s John Power.
Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream.
“It’s a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,” Power said. “It’s not the kind of ash that you find at the base of your wood stove.”
The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. “They use this to polish all kinds of metals,” he said.
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.
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