volcano!

[mallochai]

St. Augustine has been spewing ash all over the place. Hopefully, this won't escalate much further, or it'll mean lots of fun things like air masks, not driving, not going outside... pretty much locking ourselves up in the house with every window and door sealed up for anywhere from two days to who knows how many weeks... Blech.

They've cancelled a lot of flights through Alaska Airlines because the ash is so dense and heavy that it can completely clog up engines and cause immense damage, not to mention crashing airplanes. I've heard it can collapse a roof, depending on strength and thickness, of course, with as little as six inches of buildup. So far, it's not reaching Anchorage, but the winds could change all of that. Scientists are saying that it probably won't be a major erruption any time real soon... but magma is just a matter of time.

Again, it's not LIKELY that there'll be any serious problems this far north... but dude... volcanic ash basically turns to cement in the human lungs, and ruins any type of running machinery. It's dense, but really fine, so it can sift itself into pretty much anything. I'm so glad I don't live in Homer.

There are actually three volcanoes in the Alaska area that are under surveillance because of activity in the last several years. St. Augustine can be seen here, at least during daylight hours.

Another link, from the National Weather Service Forecast Office.

[mallochai]

Before ash falls...

giant storm-like clouds. This is actually a very beautiful image, for as frightening as the outcome will be.

After ash falls...

Wow.

This website has a really indepth wealth of information about volcanic ash.

[bean]

Damn, that's scary...neat, but scary. Hopefully everything will be okay where you are. :clover

[Mikielikesit]

That is the awesome power of mother nature...we are all merely by standers when she flexes her muscle's

[paradox]

thats crazy

[Homicidalheathen]

Maybe you should move here for awhile. I know it is horrible......but those are some awesome pics of mother nature at her best when playing hit man.

[mallochai]

It looks like we're just going to get more snow for now, thankfully. It's just really freaky to think that the white stuff could be gray stuff, and not cold, but dangerous in other ways.

St. Augustine is something like 200 miles away, and in the ocean, so lava would never be a factor, at least.

[mallochai]

The picture from the webcam as of eleven a.m. my time is almost completely grayed out from all the floating ash.

My other concern right now is because of the airplanes... Scott is in Michigan, and flies back on the seventeenth, Tuesday. His plane comes in at midnight. Hopefully, the skies will be clear enough by then so that his flight can land, and doesn't get severely redirected to avoid ash clouds, or worse.

Moving away is simply not an option... and the threat really isn't that immediate at this point. Not this far north, at any rate.

This was in the newspaper yesterday. I was just thinking how unprepared I would be today if there was a major blowover to Anchorage.

[Homicidalheathen]

Note to self: pray to goddess of travel on the 17th. :innocent

The picture from the webcam as of eleven a.m. my time is almost completely grayed out from all the floating ash. 

My other concern right now is because of the airplanes...  Scott is in Michigan, and flies back on the seventeenth, Tuesday.  His plane comes in at midnight.  Hopefully, the skies will be clear enough by then so that his flight can land, and doesn't get severely redirected to avoid ash clouds, or worse. 

Moving away is simply not an option... and the threat really isn't that immediate at this point.  Not this far north, at any rate. 

This was in the newspaper yesterday.  I was just thinking how unprepared I would be today if there was a major blowover to Anchorage. 

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