Did Augustine Volcano in Alaska Just Erupt?

Originally posted by Wookiep
The Augustine low light cam is sorta interesting

www.avo.alaska.edu...

OMG I've gone blind...

Ok this is getting redickuli,, my money is on Etna next any takers,, i'll give odds ,, lol might as well,,, lol

Well, I've got to crash. But thanks all for helping. And thanks to you, west! That was a great idea to check the weather! That doesn't look like snow to me either. But I am not sure whether that cam is near the top of the island or what. If it is higher elevation, it could be snow up there.

You guys keep an eye on that sukka, I'll join back tomorrow afternoon. Don't let any doom get away!

Have a pleasant evening folks, laterz.

I just found this site by searching google. Mouse over the island and it doesn't say anything about snow
weather site

I'm still going on the assumption that all is norm, until someting definative comes along....BUT:

IF this were an erruption, what are we talking about here? Someone with some knowledge of this volcano want to chime in and fill in the blanks? I'll go do some reading, but...*sigh* it's just SO much easier if someone else already knows it.

What kind of volcano is this? What is it's erruption history? What kind of impact would it possibly have, ie. locally and global?

Anyone?

Well it sure looks like snow to me, especially the Island cam.

These volcanoes are at green. One minor earthquake does not an eruption make. If you look at some of the other cams you will see there is rain, and anyway most of them appear to be stuck in time! Several have been showing the same picture for the past hour or more.

This webicorder does not look like an erupting volcano to me.

Here is the view for the 18th UTC so far. AUH.AV..EHZ.2010.108

Nothing to see here - move along.


[edit on 17/4/2010 by PuterMan]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/10593cc45b5b.gif[/atsimg]
The latest weather radar shows some precipitations nearby, but..was it snow?









www.wunderground.com... abel=Anchorage,%20AK&showstorms=0&map.x=237&map.y=414¢erx=954¢ery=-174&lightning=0&smooth0&showlabels=1&rainsnow=0


[edit on 17-4-2010 by ghr54321] to add link


[edit on 17-4-2010 by ghr54321]

Gotta think snow but the webcam seems to be frozen no new images coming up so who knows. Just looking at the webcorder though I would say those tracings don't LOOK like an eruption....
You can check them out here... www.avo.alaska.edu...

We do have a CME coming though from a sunspot a few days ago.
www.solarcycle24.com... See if it increases the activity.

[edit on 18-4-2010 by alexgia]

Augustine low-light cam ,,,, bubble???

reply to post by BobAthome


Theres no low light cam right now...I thought there was, but the pic giving an example was from 2006 lol. I felt real stupid when I tried to post a link to it, lol.

reply to post by westcoast


I don't know if it's what you wanted, but I did the Wikipedia thing:

Augustine Volcano

Augustine Volcano is a stratovolcano on Augustine Island in southwestern Cook Inlet in the Kenai Peninsula Borough of southcentral coastal Alaska, 280 kilometers (174 mi) southwest of Anchorage. The Alaska Volcano Observatory currently rates Mount Augustine as Level of Concern Color Code Green for aviation and the Volcano Alert Level is at Normal. Augustine Island has a land area of 83.872 square kilometers (32.4 sq mi), while West Island, just off Augustine's western shores, has 5.142 km2 (2.0 sq mi).
The island is made up mainly of past eruption deposits. Scientists have been able to discern that past dome collapse has resulted in large avalanches.

The nearly circular uninhabited island formed by Augustine Volcano is 12 km (7.5 mi) wide east-west, 10 km (6 mi) north-south; a nearly symmetrical central summit peaks at altitude 4,134 feet (1,260 m).

Augustine's summit consists of several overlapping lava dome complexes placed during many historic and prehistoric eruptions. Most of the fragmental debris exposed along its slopes comprises angular blocks of dome-rock andesite, typically of cobble to boulder size but carrying clasts as large as 4 to 8 meters (10 to 25 feet), rarely as large as 30 meters (100 ft). The surface of such deposits is skeet, a field of steep conical mounds and intervening depressions with many meters of local relief. En route to Katmai in 1913, Robert F. Griggs had briefly inferred landslide (debris avalanche) as the origin of Augustine's hummocky coastal topography about Burr Point, by geomorphic analogy with the hummocky and blocky deposit of a 1912 landslide near Katmai.
The hummocky deposits on Augustine's lower flanks resemble both topographically and lithologically those of the great landslide or debris avalanche that initiated the spectacular May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The deposit of that landslide revealed the origin of coarse diamicts with hummocky topography at other strato volcanic cones. Since 1980 many hummocky coarsely fragmental deposits on Augustine's lower flanks have come to be interpreted as deposits of numerous great landslides and debris avalanches.

2006
In mid-December 2005 a sulfur dioxide-laden plume of steam, hundreds of miniature earthquakes and a new coating of ash over its currently snow-clad peak, taken together, suggested that Augustine was building to a new eruption, likely in 2006. [1] The eruption consisted of four "phases", continuing from December to March 2006.
The initial stage of the eruption began when microearthquake activity increased steadily from May to December 2005. At first, they started out at around 2 each day to around 15 each day. Microearthquakes are tiny earthquake that suggest a volcanic eruption could possibly occur.[3]
The volcano erupted on January 11, entering a second "stage", which would continue until January 28. Tectonic earthquakes began early on January, resulting in an explosive Volcanic Explosivity Index 3 eruption later in the day. Several ash columns were generated, each 9 km (6 mi) above sea level; these plumes were steadily influenced to the north and northeast of the volcano. Samples of the tephra were dense, insinuating that the lava released was mature.[3]
Six explosions were recorded by seismic instruments between January 13, the first of these consuming a seismograph and a CPGS located on the northwestern flank. Ash columns now reached 14 km (9 mi) and Kenai Peninsula residents reported ash deposits. On January 16, a new lava dome was observed on the summit; and the next day another explosive eruption sent ash 13 km (8 mi) into the atmosphere. This explosion created a 20-30 meter wide crater in the new lava dome.[3]

2006 eruption
On September 22, 2007, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported that shallow earthquake activity had increased over the week of September 22. However, the activity was less than its level during the months leading up to the 2005-2006 eruption.

reply to post by Wookiep


Man they gotta stop doing that, heart rate pitter,patter arghhhhh lol

I imagine some japanese scientists have just come up with the JESB device that clamps afore jet engines, and are shipping the prototype to NA and UK factories as we speak. Within a couple of weeks our volcano worries will be over, and flights can pollute as normal

reply to post by Hadrian


Ha...you beat me to it. Thanks.

I ended up doing some reading on the AVO website ( a wealth of knowledge there). Looks like she has a long history of activity. The most recent have been explosive, with several other phases lasting for some time, as outlined in the Wiki entry.

I found this little story that went along with a 1908 erruption. Thought I would share it...paints a very poignant picture:

From the Seward Daily Gateway (1908): "On the night of the 10th inst. as Captain Z. Moore of the steamer Dora was making his return trip from Unalaska to Seward, he saw in the distance what seemed to be fireworks on a very extensive scale. Immediately taking his bearings the captain found he was 63 miles off Chonobora island and the flames which lighted the heavens above came from the previously long extinct volcano St. Augustine. As the molten mass within the mountain was thrown up by internal forces on the earth, the outer crust was parted and the red glow of the melted mass cast its lights far upward on the smoke and clouds above. This was followed by intervals of darkness caused by the subsidence of the volcanic action. Then again the heaven above would glow with the reflection of the light from earth's mighty furnace making as fine a display of nature's fireworks as has ever been seen in this part of the world."

its been snowing off and on here very often (im quite close to homer, the nearest city to Augustine)

those look like the flakes we get when its just above freezing, the snow is wet and forms giant flakes,

i just checked the Doppler and it appears there is some clouds which are dumping either snow or rain in that area. Local Doppler

they tend to use the emergency alert system here when a volcano erupts since the ash can effect many things.

4.0 magnitude quakes are very common for this area, there nothing to raise an eyebrow at.

I'm going with snow for the web cam photo.

Augustine is very closely watched since a major portion of the volcano has shifted over the last 30years, there is a lot of concern that the next major eruption/quake there could cause a huge chunk of Augustine to fall into the cook-inlet producing a tsunami.

I'm guessing its nothing but normal activity, i will check this thread tomorrow after i find out more on the local news.

night all.

Looks like another quake just hit near Augustine, getting it in GEE now...waiting on USGS report...

The quake I got should show around 19:00 UTC

Ok, was a 3.3 close to Augustine, but not nearly as close as that last 4.0

earthquake.usgs.gov...

[edit on Wed Apr 21st 2010 by TrueAmerican]