Monthly Archives: January 2017
Alaska Volcanoes
Bogoslof’s eruption of 23 December 2016. Photo credit: Crew of USCG Cutter Alex Haley
With Bogoslof being as active as it has been recently, there has been an increase in interest regarding Alaska’s many volcanoes. Since mid December, Bogoslof has erupted ten times.
Plume from the eruption of Bogoslof on 20 December. Photo credit: Paul Tuvman/AVO
According to Alaska Volcano Observatory, which is a joint program by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Alaska – Fairbanks, Alaska has 90 volcanoes that have erupted in the past 10,000 years – and could erupt again. Of those 90, 50 have erupted since records started being kept in 1760.
Unlike volcanoes in Hawaii, which tend to ooze lava, Alaska volcanoes usually explode, sending ash as high as 50,000 feet in the air. Airlines get anxious when ash gets above 20,000 feet, and Bogoslof has consistently sent plumes into the 35,000′ range.
FAA estimates that roughly 80,000 large aircraft fly downwind of the Aleutian volcanoes yearly, with 30,000 people doing so every day. When Redoubt erupted in 1989, a KLM jet, which was 150 miles away, flew through Redoubt’s ash path. The jet lost all four engines with 231 people on board. The aircraft had dropped two miles, down to just over 13,000 feet, when the crew managed to restart the engines, and safely land in Anchorage.
Changes in Bogoslof Island with the recent eruptions. Credit: USGS/AVO
Photos and statistics come courtesy of AVO and their website. A special shoutout to the USCG Cutter Alex Haley: Nice photo, I hope its inclusion in the post is acceptable.
Happy Birthday
January 8th is Elvis’ birthday. The King of Rock-n-Roll would have been 82.
Historians have recently claimed to find documents stating that Darth Vader was also born on this date, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Going solo
“… the ideal companion is rare, and in default of him it is better to make a long journey alone. One’s company in a strange world.”
— Peter Fleming, “One’s Company”
“Even if I should, by some awful chance, find a hair upon my bread and honey – at any rate it is my own hair.”
— Katherine Mansfield, from her “Journal”.
Good morning
When I pulled back the drapes this morning, this young, bull moose, with buttons on his forehead, was looking directly into my kitchen window. I assume that he had heard me moving about the cabin, wondering what the noises were behind the black hole in the wall, because his nose was inches from the glass when I parted the sunlight-blocking, window coverings. By the time I grabbed a camera, he had started to move towards a tree to munch on. Mama moose is further back, and to the right, eating heartily.
In the end, I had to shoo them both off, in order to have a peaceful visit to the outhouse.
Mascots on Ice
White Bear Mitsubishi in the Twin Cities area filmed a rather problematic commercial at Mariucci Arena, the home of the Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey team.
The Alaska Polar Bear is much better on ice.
Video tip comes courtesy of Knoxville.
Rover Hut II
The new & improved Rover Hut had it’s first real weather test over the weekend. A good dumping of 15″ of snow, followed by wind gusts at 30-40 mph. In fact, wind gusts hit 52 mph at the airport. Overall, the Rover’s new home held up well.
Waz of the North
We are starting 2017, by looking back on some personal history, that I have never completely understood.
Now that the dinner has been consumed, the fireworks lit, and the bourbon drank, I will confess to, very recently, watching the film Monsters, Inc for the first time.
In the end, I have no idea what to make of it, and ask, with all sincerity: “WTF?”
P.S. Congrats on the nice walleye.
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