It’s been a while since I posted something, blogged? As you might assume there’s not normally a lot of real interest going on in a plow driver’s life when it doesn’t snow.
So, what’s changed you ask? Mt. St. Augustine I inswer. If you’ve been paying attention to how things get named you’ll recognize the St. part of the name and I hope, not wonder why they named a mountain after somebody’s street. In short, Augustine is a volcano and it’s decided to make itself some new realestate as it’s not a very tall mountain. . . Yet.
It does have it’s own island so even at 4,100′+/- it looks pretty tall. I put the +/- in there rather than stating it’s height to the foot because it’s changing as I type. It erupted explosively four or five times yesterday and once at least just after midnight this morning. So, I don’t know how tall it is right now.
This is the URL to the Alaska Volcano Observatory site. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Augustine.php
There are a number of volcano cams available at the AVO site but the following is my favorite. It’s on the east side of the island and though it’s view is frequently obscured by falling ash or dust from a big landslide like yesterday, 01/13/06 it still lets you enjoy the up close and personal view of an erupting volcano I love.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/augustine2.php
Okay, I’ll bet you’re saying to yourself. So what? It’s just another erupting Alaskan volcano. Right?
Well, right you are. It is just another erupting Alaskan volcano and there’s typically at least two erupting somewhere in Alaska at any given time. What makes this one sorta special is how close it is to home. St. Augustine is about 180 miles SSW of Anchorage which puts it just a tad farther than that from Deb and I here on the pygmy farm.
Don’t panic, Deb and I are prepared. We have dust masks, goggles, visquene and duct tape. We’re on a well and have a generator so if an ashfall forces the local utilities to shut down we’ll have water. We have a wood stove and 15 acres of forest so we won’t freeze. The pygmy goats can be locked in the barn and properly draped tarps will keep out the worst of the dust.
While Augustine is quite a ways from us it is possible to get an ashfall significant enough to be a health risk. If you’re not already aware, volcanic ash is really little tiny broken bubbles of glass. Not only is it jagged, sharper than razor sharp and coated with nasty sulphur compounds, being freshly broken it is at it’s maximum for silicosis threat.
While it’s not likely we’ll get dusted it can certainly happen. During it’s 76 eruption ash made it more than half way to Fairbanks though it wasn’t heavy. If you kicked down into some fresh snow you could see the ash from the color contrast. I don’t recall Anchorage getting any ash from the 86 eruption but we might have.
Anchorage and volcanic ash aren’t strangers though. The 89-90 eruption of Mt. Redoubt dusted Anchorage numerous times though not heavily. The 92 eruption of Mt. Spurr on the other hand laid several inches on the city and surrounding area.
While Mt. St. Augustine is the most active volcano of the Cook Inlet volcanos, it isn’t the only player. As I said I’ve seen Augustine erupt counting the current event, three times, Redoubt once and Spurr once each.
Presently Spurr has been rumbling to life over the past year and will probably begin erupting in the next 6 mos. to year. I’m not claiming insider info on this, just guessing based on past performance. Spurr is the real ash threat as it’s a mere 75 miles from Anchorage.
Then there’s another volcano a bit further down the Aleution range called Martin that’s rumbling. Martin is a bit farther from Anchorage at 280 miles but that’s still dusting range.
Think I’ll go check out the volcano cam again now, maybe the latest ashfall has cleared enough to see what’s new on the mountain.
Frosty
