Redoubt Leaves No Doubt It Is Active

Mount Redoubt, a volcano located in Alaska has finally blown after 20 years of silence. Ash spewed from the volcano for over nine miles. Anchorage, Alaska's largest city didn't catch much of the ash but towns north of it did. Just 50 miles north of Anchorage, Willow was hit with inches of ash. People are careful to stay inside and keep all of their cars and other vehicles covered up so they don't get damaged by the rough ash. In light of this event 19 flights, so far, have been cancelled and Elmendorf Air Force Base has sheltered all of it's aircraft. At 10:38 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, the first eruption occurred, with the last eruption happening at 4:30 a.m. the following day. According to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the ash cloud is headed toward Mount McKinley, dropping bits of fine ash as it goes. Luckily this event did not come with surprise. The observatory had warned that "An eruption could occur at anytime" when they recorded increased seismic activity in late January. Scientists raised the alert level after abnormally high seismic activity in the forty-eight hours leading up to the eruption. The day of the eruption, there was somewhere between forty and fifty earthquakes recorded around the area. With the history of this volcano it would be wise to prepare for another eruption in the next couple days or weeks.

Mount Redoubts eruption is possibly the biggest environmental impact Alaska has had in the past year. When the ash and larger tephra fall from the sky they tend to kill things they land on. More deadly than this tephra falling on someone, is the ash getting inside someone. If people start to inhale the ash before they know what is happening they are going to be choking up blood before they can walk out of the street. I don't know about you, but i like my blood in my body. With the struggling economy the way it is, this has the potential to be an economical disaster. Ash will get into things, collapse buildings, and the government will have to pay a bunch of damage expenses while the insurance companies go broke from every one's claims.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29833845/

"Alaska volcano sends ash plume 9 miles high." MSNBC. 23 Mar 2009. 24 Mar 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29833845/ .