Steaming Volcano Attracts Attention
Anne Aurand
Very little, if any, ash spewed Sunday night along with the steam, said Michelle Coombs, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Fourpeaked Mountain has steam vents, which means it's known for volcanic and geothermal activity, but they are usually inactive, Coombs said. There are no communities nearby.
What does it all mean?
“We’re still not sure. ... It could be just an exceptional increase in steam activity,” Coombs said. “It could have been a small volcanic explosion. It would have been mostly vapor.”
Steam is not hazardous, she said, so she’s not concerned about safety at this point. Ash is what can be dangerous for aircraft.
It wasn’t a big eruption. The observatory has networks of seismic monitors in various places across Cook Inlet, and they didn’t register anything. But there are no seismometers right on Fourpeaked, she said. Lot of volcanoes spit out visible steam plumes, and Sunday was a good night to see them. Homer residents had exceptional viewing: no wind, clear skies. Many called the volcano observatory. Some called police. Geologists will send up a plane to visually inspect the mountain, but now the weather is too poor, so they’ll have to wait until the skies clear up again, Coombs said.
Fourpeaked and the neighboring Mount Douglas have not had volcanic activity in thousands of years, she said. That doesn’t rule out a possibility that they could come back to life.
Alaska has more than 100 volcanoes and volcanic fields that have been active during the last 2 million years, according to the observatory’s Web page. Many mountains have been active in the past few thousand years. Most are along the Aleutian Arc, which forms the northern portion of the Pacific “ring of fire.”
The area is remote and sparsely populated, so the danger is mostly to aircraft flying over the area.
“Hardly a year goes by without a major eruption from a volcano in the Aleutian Arc,” the site says.
To keep an eye on Alaska’s volcanoes, visit www.avo.alaska.edu
Daily News reporter Anne Aurand can be reached at aaurand@adn.com or 257-4591.