Cook Inlet Volcanoes

3 Comments Posted on February 11th, 2011 by admin

[ video ] Mt. Augustine Breathes
[ video ] Redoubt’s Ash
[ video ] Spurr’s Eruption
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Hazardous volcano eruptive activity may endanger lives and property. Since 1988, the Alaska Volcano Observatory scientists have monitored and studied Alaska’s hazardous volcanoes in order to predict and record eruptive activity. The AVO offices are located in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska. The Anchorage Office at the USGS is the primary point of information dissemination during crises. The Fairbanks Office at the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute serves as the data collection point for most of the seismic and Satellite data.

AVO is staffed by about 22 full-time scientists, technicians, and administrators. Management responsibility rests with the Scientist-in Charge, a USGS employee in Anchorage and the Coordinating Scientist in Fairbanks, a UAFGI or ADGGS employee.

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3 Responses to “Cook Inlet Volcanoes”

Rod Hobbs on May 5th, 2011 6:14 pm:

Hi Michelle,
I work for the NMFS National Marine Mammal Lab in Seattle. We are assessing risks for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale and am wondering if there is a report or publication that would provide probabilities of eruption and also consequences such amount of ash, sulfur or other toxic substances that would end up in Cook Inlet.
Thanks,
Rod Hobbs

Game McGimsey on May 17th, 2011 7:00 pm:

In response to Rod’s question….

Michelle is very busy trying to finish a paper that has deadline fast approaching (2 weeks), so I volunteered to respond to this question.

There currently is no publication that answers the questions of eruption probabilities, amount of ash fall to expect, etc for Cook Inlet (CI) volcanoes. Each of the CI volcanoes has a preliminary hazard report that addresses historic eruption frequency and impacts of eruptions (from a hazards point of view). We are still updating the geologic mapping of several CI volcanoes (Redoubt, Spurr, Iliamna), and the plan is to produce a Cook Inlet volcanoes summary hazard assessment. For now, the best resource is the individual hazard reports, which can be found on the AVO website under “Library” or at: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/downloads/classresults.php?pregen=haz>. There are other topical publications (e.g. on tephra and various aspects of recent eruptions) that are also available by searching the references for any particular volcano.

–Game

Willa McGimsey on May 18th, 2011 12:34 pm:

What is happening with Readout? We were almost able to fly over it…..remember, Game?

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