Geology Picture of the Week, March 29 - April 4, 2009: Redoubt Activity

Alaska Volcano Observatory ^ | Last week | USGS

[cogitator]

Selected shots from recently acquired shots of Redoubt. Click for full-size.

Image courtesy of Bretwood Higman.

Image Creator: Sadler, Tricia Joy

Redoubt eruption column, as seen on the way to Kenai from Nikiski. (Image shown full-size.)
Picture Date: March 28, 2009
Image Creator: Hagstrom-Sanger, Leigh;

Image Creator: Waythomas, Chris

Backscattered electron image of amphibole grain in AT-1610 with a thick reaction rim surrounding it. Amphibole is a volcanic mineral that crystallizes in magma that contains some amount of water. As magma moves up toward the surface, it loses water and the amphibole reacts, forming a rim containing plagioclase, pyroxene, and oxide minerals. At Mt Redoubt, this process probably happens when the magma reached depths of about 4 km or less. This particular amphibole has a rim that is very well developed, which could indicate it was in a batch of magma that resided beneath Redoubt at somewhat shallow depths for a while. More work will help us figure out timescales and magma depths. Image collected using the Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory (UAF) Cameca SX-50 electron microprobe.
Picture Date: March 31, 2009
Image Creator: Larsen, Jessica

[cogitator]

There's a lot more in the Redoubt image gallery.

[cogitator]

** ping **

[GATOR NAVY]

I haven’t seen any of those spectacular clouds but I do have a very light dusting of ash in my yard.

[sasportas]

Gator, sounds like you are in Anchorage. I think those spectacular clouds would be seen everywhere in the Kenai peninsula.

[dr_lew]

Here's a snapshot of the Redoubt ash plume that I took from space while cruising in orbit in my personal spaceship ... well that's the way I like to think of it!

[GATOR NAVY]

Close, I’m in Wasilla. The only thing I’ve seen is a brown haze in the sky the day we got the ash. If I was to see a big spectacular cloud as far away as I am it would be a very bad thing.

Just got an e-mail this morning from my mother who is on the lower Kenai Peninsula. The mountain has gone up again. They woke up to thunder and lightning and are getting ash as we speak.