News: Alaska Volcano "Augustine" Active

This volcano in Alaska threw plumes of smoke/clouds 10 miles nto the sky. Flights out of Anchorage cancelled.

news.bbc.co.uk...
*The Augustine volcano has sent plumes of smoke 15km (10 miles) into the sky.

The mountain, on an uninhabited island, has been erupting since Wednesday. Scientists said the "eruptive period" might last for months.

Alaska Airlines cancelled 28 flights using Anchorage and Fairbanks airports, while people living many miles away were warned about possible ash falls.

*From BBC News

Could this Volcano have a link to Raineer or other volcanoes in the region? I know Helens was or is acting up again as well. Maybe something to watch in the coming days.

if several volcanoes were to errupt in or around the same time wouldnt the global effects be like nuclear winter?

I live in Seattle and have been hearing a LOT about ount St Helens. Helens is currently "active" and has built a secondary cone inside it's crater. But I do know that "Augustine" is somehow connected. Seems like the Pacisfic Nowrthwest is "heating" up . Hopefully the mountains will allow me to finish school here and move

I wouldn't worry about mount st helens to much at the moment. Although it occasionally clears its throat (which is actually good), we are unlikely to see an eruption on the scale of the 1981 (just yet!). The diffrence between then and now is that the cone of material that built up in 1981 was on the flanks of the mountain. This made the flank of the mountain very unstable, this combined with the inflating magma chamber cuased the massive landslide, which then exposed the magma chamber, that itself was under pressure, and in the same way that if you shake up a bottle of coke and then remove the cap quickly, it will spray coke everywhere, the same thing happened at Mt St. Helends. The landslide exposed the pressurised magma chamber causing the massive lateral blast.

At the moment the cone building up at Mt St.helens is roughly located centrally within the crater left by the 1981 eruption. Therefore it does not have the aid of gravity on its side. The magma from Mt. St. Helens is very viscous, because of its high silica content. The upshot of this is that it tends to get stuck in volcanic vent leading up into the crater. The real danger occurs if the this material blocks up the vent to such a degree that a large amount of pressure builds up behind, in this cirumstance we may see a sizeable volcanic eruption, but probably not as large as in 81'