| 2009 Mount Redoubt eruptive activity | |
| Type: | Plinian, subplinian |
| Location: | Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States |
| Coordinates: | 60.485°N -152.743°W |
| Vei: | 3 |
Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano began erupting on March 22, 2009, and activity continued for several months.
During the eruptions, which lasted for several months, reports found ash clouds reaching as high as above sea level.[1] In response, the National Weather Service issued a series of ash fall advisories. The Mat-Su Valley, Anchorage, Valdez and large portions of the Kenai Peninsula all received coatings of tephra. The 2009 eruptions of Mount Redoubt represented the most seismic activity occurring on the mountain in twenty years.[2]
The 2009 eruptions of Mount Redoubt renewed concerns over the safety of the nearby tank farm which holds crude oil, known as the Drift River Terminal Facility.[3] During the earlier, 1989-90 eruptions of Redoubt, the facility was inundated and damaged by lahars. Dikes built after the 89/90 activity protected the tanks, although an aircraft hangar and runway were flooded and damaged by the flooding and related debris.[4] In late March the US Coast Guard decided to move the millions of gallons located at the facility to prevent an ecological disaster. The plan called for then refilling the tanks with "harmless" ballast water to prevent them from being dislodged by flooding..[5]
However, on April 5, the Coast Guard stated that filling the empty tanks with ballast water was not possible, because it would create a hazardous waste that the neither the facility nor the Coast Guard was prepared to deal with afterward. Instead, the oil was removed and the empty tanks remained vulnerable to damage from further flooding. In the meantime, oil production in Cook Inlet was suspended, because the tank farms were out of commission while Mount Redoubt remained in an eruptive state.[6]
When the eruptions subsided, the tanks were undamaged and the facility was cleared of debris and subsequently reopened.
As of April 4, 2009, AVO had recorded twenty-six volcanic eruptions and/or explosions at Redoubt volcano, although they singled out nineteen of them as most notable. The AVO refers to an "eruption" as any event which discharges ash into the atmosphere, while adding the term "explosion" for more vigorous events. The AVO did not rate and compare each eruption, although the 9:24 am eruption on March 26 reached an altitude of 65,000 feet making it the highest volcanic ash cloud to date during the 2009 phase of activity.[7] The eruption on April 4 was described as being the biggest eruption to date. There were also periods when the volcano emitted notable amounts of steam but did not erupt.
The AVO reported that Redoubt erupted or exhibited other notable activity at the following times, with all ash cloud heights in feet above sea level:
On April 11, 2009, the Alaska Volcano Observatory released the following statement into the public domain on their USGS affiliated website regarding the aftermath of the 2009 eruptions of Mount Redoubt, and a prognosis for future activity.
Three major lahars (volcanic mudflows), on March 23, March 26, and April 4, have inundated the Drift River Valley and its downstream coastal fan. All of these reached the Cook Inlet and affected the Drift River Oil Terminal (DROT). The peak discharge rates of these lahars remains under investigation, but all are considered significant, and the April 4 event may have exceeded the size of any lahar observed during the 1989/1990 eruption. Smaller lahars that did not impact DROT have also occurred.
Several of Redoubt's recent explosions have resulted in measurable ash fall over populated areas as distant as Delta Junction (340 miles northeast of Redoubt), with more significant ash fall in more proximate areas, including the Susitna Valley, the Kenai Peninsula and the Anchorage bowl. On the afternoon of March 28, ash fall in Anchorage closed the airport from 17:00 until 07:00 the next morning (March 29). The maximum ash fall measured so far in a populated area is about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) near Seldovia following the April 4 explosion. A measurement of about 1/8 inch (3 mm) following the explosion on March 26, was recorded near Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, about 30 miles (48 km) south of the volcano. Trace ash fall has also been observed between explosive events during times when the volcano is emitting a continuous low altitude (< 15,000 feet ASL) gas and ash plume.
A rich variety of seismic signals have been recorded at Redoubt throughout the eruption and in the preceding months of unrest. These seismic events include: (1) typical "rock-breaking" earthquakes; (2) volcanic "tremor", indicative of steam and other volcanic gases or fluids vigorously propagating through cracks; (3) large, far-reaching, "cigar-shaped" signals resulting from volcanic explosions; (4) ground shaking from lahars as they pass nearby seismometers; and (5) small, repetitive, self-similar events associated with the slow extrusion of lava (this kind of extrusion is often referred to as "dome building"). More than 1700 earthquakes have been located since mid-January, and many more occurred that were either too small or of such a character as to make location impossible. Typically, the magnitudes of these events are small, the average being around M0.5. However, on April 9 a magnitude 3.3 earthquake occurred about 2.5 miles (4 km) E/NE of Redoubt's summit, possibly resulting from a crustal adjustment to the ongoing withdrawal from Redoubt's subterranean magma reservoir.
Since the fall of 2008, AVO has flown 13 gas measurement flights, and of these, 5 have occurred since the eruption began on March 15, 2009. Elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rates (up to 2000 tonnes/day) were measured in October–November, 2008. Starting in late January 2009, and coincident with a strong increase in seismicity, gas emission rates rose to a level (> 5000 tonnes/d) suggesting significant unrest at the volcano, and emissions stayed at this level until the eruption began. Since that time, emissions of both CO2 and sulfur dioxide (SO2) have been very elevated, sometimes reaching levels in excess of 10,000 tonnes/d. These volcanic gas emission rates are among the largest ever measured in Alaska, though such high values are consistent with an openly degassing volcanic system that is actively extruding lava. Based on measurements and observations from Redoubt's previously observed eruptions, these gas emission rates are likely to drop substantially when the eruption wanes.
The combination of gas and ash emission from Redoubt since the beginning of the eruption has on occasion resulted in a brownish-yellow volcanic haze in the Cook Inlet region. The volcanic haze contains small quantities of ash, water vapor, sulfur aerosols, and liquid droplets suspended in the air. The main concerns for human health in volcanic haze consist of ash, sulfur dioxide gas (SO2), and sulfuric acid droplets (H2SO4), which forms when volcanic SO2 oxidizes in the atmosphere. Volcanic haze can be both an eye and respiratory irritant. The State of Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin No. 5 summarizes the health effects associated with volcanic emissions and is available on the web at http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/bulletins/docs/b2006_05.pdf.
Visual and satellite observations show that by March 27, a deep crater about a half mile (800 m) across formed in the middle of the summit amphitheater, likely from one or more of the explosions during the early stage of the eruption. By April 4, a north/south elongated lava dome, about a half mile (800 m) long had grown out of the new crater, at an elevation of around 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. Most if not all of this dome was destroyed during the large explosion of April 4. A large amount of ice and snow has been removed from the upper Drift Glacier. The Drift River Valley has also been mostly denuded of snow and is covered with lahar deposits. The latest observations, as of about April 9, show a growing lava dome in about the same place as the previous dome. This new dome is about a quarter mile (400 meters) in diameter, and roughly circular as viewed from above.
In late May 2009, it was reported that the continued shutdown of oil production in Cook Inlet due to the eruption of Mount Redoubt was costing the state of Alaska approximately US$1.5 million a month in tax revenue.[12]
