Alert level raised for Alaska volcano

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/alaska_volcano

Alert level raised for Alaska volcano

ANCHORAGE, Alaska ? Increased earthquake activity has prompted scientists to raise the alert level for Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano.

Geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday that seismic activity had increased over the past two days. On Sunday morning, 40 to 50 earthquakes were being recorded every hour.

Scientists said conditions may evolve rapidly and culminated in an eruption within days to weeks at the volcano roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.




http://www.adn.com/news/politics/story/702875.html

Alaskans fume over Jindal volcano-monitoring gripe

In his official Republican response to President Barack Obama's speech to the nation Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said repeatedly that "Americans can do anything!"

With one exception, apparently. We don't need to keep an eye on simmering volcanoes.

Jindal singled out "volcano monitoring" as an unnecessary frill that Democrats stuck in the recently adopted stimulus package.




It would really seem to me the Governor of state that virtually had a city wiped out due to the effects of nature would not single out the study of predicting the effects of nature as his prime example of wasteful spending.

 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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so is this thread about the volcano or about jindal's idiocy? cuz i know we've already had a thread about the latter.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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Meh, I don't see why (old news) fuss about Jindal's remarks, they seem to be monitoring it just fine as it is now. (But I'll skip the chance to complain, in usual P&N fashion, about politicizing a possible volcanic erruption.)

My understanding is that Anchorage is too far away to be impacted. I suppose there are small villages in harm's way. Maybe a possiblity that some critical highway may be blocked?

Perhaps someone here from Alaska knows?

Fern
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,947
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well it is funny. I mean really, if anything this shows the total lack of higher thinking going on with jindal. I mean here we are a month or so later and ohh look a volcano might erupt. lol
 

Sacrilege

Senior member
Sep 6, 2007
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Will this issue create a schism between the Republican stars, and intellectual leaders of the party, most likely to be paired up for the 2012 presidential race??? Say it ain't so!
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
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Originally posted by: Fern
Meh, I don't see why (old news) fuss about Jindal's remarks, they seem to be monitoring it just fine as it is now. (But I'll skip the chance to complain, in usual P&N fashion, about politicizing a possible volcanic erruption.)

My understanding is that Anchorage is too far away to be impacted. I suppose there are small villages in harm's way. Maybe a possiblity that some critical highway may be blocked?

Perhaps someone here from Alaska knows?

Fern

It depends on the size of the 'blow'. If Anchorage is 100 miles away it could get a little dicey. IIRC Mt St Helens dumped a deep load of ash on places that far away.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
126
Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Originally posted by: Fern
Meh, I don't see why (old news) fuss about Jindal's remarks, they seem to be monitoring it just fine as it is now. (But I'll skip the chance to complain, in usual P&N fashion, about politicizing a possible volcanic erruption.)

My understanding is that Anchorage is too far away to be impacted. I suppose there are small villages in harm's way. Maybe a possiblity that some critical highway may be blocked?

Perhaps someone here from Alaska knows?

Fern

It depends on the size of the 'blow'. If Anchorage is 100 miles away it could get a little dicey. IIRC Mt St Helens dumped a deep load of ash on places that far away.

Ash can reach many hundreds of Miles. The biggest concern will be Air Travel as Flights to Asia fly quite far North to shorten the trip.
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
6,278
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I found a Mt Redoubt web cam. Beautiful place ... (for the time being :D )

Here is a decent report with a photo of the 1989 eruption of Mt Redoubt. It has a rather good Q&A with the USGS volcano hazards program coordinator (in the safe confines of Reston, Va - LOL)

Current seismograph over the last 48 hours from Station RSO - "... located close to the Redoubt summit and is very sensitive to the current increase in seismicity...."
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,924
45
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Originally posted by: techs

It would really seem to me the Governor of state that virtually had a city wiped out due to the effects of nature would not single out the study of predicting the effects of nature as his prime example of wasteful spending.

Congratulations on reaching the same conclusion that the rest of the country reached a month ago. You get a gold star. :thumbsup:
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
8,999
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Mount RedoubtMount Redoubt has been causing alarm quite a lot as of late. The fact that it is a stratovolcano presents a unique danger to Alaska. I started a thread about this a while back, for those who are still interested. As far as Jindall goes, the man is either a scientific ignoramus, or a hypocrite. Using volcano monitoring as an example of pork is tantamount in his case of classifying NOAA radar stations as the same, just for a few 'thunderstorms' you could see by looking out a window. Sheesh.

 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
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I was hoping for an actual news story and commentary for a change. 'Guess the denizens of 'P & P' would argue politics while the volcano blows.
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
I was hoping for an actual news story and commentary for a change. 'Guess the denizens of 'P & P' would argue politics while the volcano blows.

Nobody here really cares about news. Watch what happens when you post a purely news story. See my previous volcano thread, or worse, my Socks the Cat thread.

:p

P&P is pretty accurate a lot of the time.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
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Originally posted by: MovingTarget
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
I was hoping for an actual news story and commentary for a change. 'Guess the denizens of 'P & P' would argue politics while the volcano blows.

Nobody here really cares about news. Watch what happens when you post a purely news story. See my previous volcano thread, or worse, my Socks the Cat thread.

:p

P&P is pretty accurate a lot of the time.

Yup. My previous attempts fizzled fast. I probably should have posted in Highly Technical or turned my threads into some kind of Partisan BS.

Disclaimer: I don't recall all of them, so if I tried the Partisan BS angle, I still failed. :laugh:
 

Fear No Evil

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2008
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The forecasters pretty much got Katrina correct. It was a bad hurricane and told people to get the f--k out. More money to better understand hurricanes wouldn't have changed the outcome.
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
The forecasters pretty much got Katrina correct. It was a bad hurricane and told people to get the f--k out. More money to better understand hurricanes wouldn't have changed the outcome.

No, but it does help forecasters narrow down where/when landfall will occur, and at what strength. There have been significant strides in hurricane forecasting even since Hurricane Andrew. This has only increased since even Katrina. Katrina wasn't a failure of this system, but a failure of beurocracy, levee design/maintainence, and economics/stupidity (those left behind).