And it just keeps going!

So now that Mt. Slacker has decided to blow, it just won't stop. Those of you who have been around volcanoes for any length of time probably find this absolutely normal. But for those of us who grew up with the Volcano as a concept, a distant mystical thing, it is all kind of unexpected. The way it seems from a distance, a volcano is either extinct or active, and if its active it quietly builds up pressure for a while (length of time can vary), and then it erupts. Then FEMA comes in and Tommy Lee Jones fixes everything, and then it's all calm again until the next cycle starts up again. And maybe some volcanoes do work that way. But not this one.
This one had rising and falling levels of seismic activity for months now (or earlier post fame). And apparently that's not unusual. Longtime Alaskans tell me the local volcanoes usually act this way. From the earliest signs to the actual eruption is often many long, roller coaster-y months. And then it just keeps on going. It erupted this morning, it erupted 2 or 3 times yesterday, and so on back through the week, starting with 5 eruptions Sunday night into Monday. Sorry, just went to AVO's website to try to fact check (it happens occasionally) and it turns out it erupted twice today - my mistake. This makes a total of a dozen eruptions this week. Anyway, around midweek I sent out messages to let loved ones know we were still fine and not having any problems, and none of them knew the thing was still erupting! And in all fairness, if we didn't live right here, we wouldn't have either. It's pretty low key, considering that it's a pretty awesome force of nature style event. Basically, the results have been:
1) the activity is melting the glacier(s?) on the volcano, which is causing lahars and pretty bad flooding near the volcano itself, which may or may not have damaged an oil terminal nearby.
2)It is messing up air travel pretty bad. Although most of the ash is not falling to the ground, it is hanging up in the air and causing all the airlines to cancel or postpone flights.

None of that is particularly telegenic, which is why it isn't all over the news outside. Well, as we Alaskan say, Whatever, volcano.

Mt Redoubt - Kind of a disappointment

So if you read the news, you may have heard that our old friend Mt Slacker finally erupted. Of course if you blinked, you may well have missed it. This is because it was pretty underwhelming as far as volcanic eruptions go. Oh, it blew a bunch of ash and steam impressively high into the atmosphere, and some places to the north got some ash, and some planes got cancelled, but that was pretty much it. It even happened at night, so as far as I know, no one even got good pictures of it. Other than some flights getting cancelled, most people in Anchorage never even missed a beat.
This was damn disappointing. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm really glad no one got hurt and there wasn't any major property damage. But I was hoping to get to see an eruption and possibly get a day off work. But no such luck on either count. There were even some pretty spectacular pictures of the volcano that erupted underwater elsewhere on our burnin' Ring of Fire, but not our volcano. Let me reiterate that - the other volcano erupted UNDER WATER. Under THE OCEAN. And still it looked cooler than our volcano. Because you could see it.
Sigh.
After the months of buildup and stern warnings and safety directives from the Red Cross and the Volcano Observatory and FEMA, it finally erupts, and ... then the next day the local newspaper has a little column on it, which is quickly superceded by news about the AAU's women's basketball team and a reflection on the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It was such an anticlimax that on Monday afternoon, I got a text message from my parents asking if I was all right, and it took me 10 minutes of puzzled frowning at my phone to get why they were asking me that. Now I understand the "Whatever" attitude that long-term Alaskans have when talking about their eruptions! And they do literally say that. You say to them, "Oh my God! That volcano is really unstable! It's going to erupt!" and they look at you for a minute, and then say, "Whatever." It was pretty amazing to me a week ago, but now I too say "Whatever."
However, I know it is unfair of me to whine. When you're dealing with volcanos, it's better to have too little excitement than to have too much!

We live on...a burning ring of fire

Well, we are getting a taste of the famous geology action associated with this area. Saturday morning a 5.7 (I think) earthquake rattled this area of Alaska. We felt a very light, short shaking where we are, but people on the western edge of Anchorage had a bit of damage. I'm told this is because our apartment is on bedrock, and the western edge is on sediment. (Thanks to friends and family who inquired after us! )
Shortly after the quake, one of our local volcanos started acting up a little. This may or may not mean there will be an eruption. For more details, see the ADN story here . Now, this is an interesting dilemma for a newbie. Not being from around here, I have no way of knowing if this is one of those things the authorities have to mention even if they don't really think anything's going to happen, or if the understated nature of the alert is just a factor of the typical Alaskan lack of concern for danger. I should point out that the volcano in question, Mt. Redoubt, is 100 miles away and across the Cook Inlet, so even if it goes up in a spectacular fashion, there won't be rivers of lava chasing screaming civilians down the streets of Anchorage. There will almost certainly be wads of ash, which is trouble. If we take no other lessons from the fate of Pompeii, we can certainly hold onto that one. Most of the warnings, in fact stem around precautions to take against ash. Although no one is hysterically swarming the stores, we couldn't find any respirators (on the emergency supplies list) at Sears today. I don't know that that means anything, but there it is.
This led us to reminiscing about other emergency precautions sent out by authorities in other parts of the country. In eastern Pennsylvania, for example, if a blizzard is coming, people stock up on bread, eggs, and milk. We will fight the awesome power of nature with French Toast! Although to be fair, I don't believe that is in response to an official announcement from the state. In Florida, people stock up on Clorox. Hit with a hurricane? May as well clean! ( No, seriously. I know it is to sterilize drinking water.) Last summer I was in California for work, and there were pretty severe wildfires nearby, to the point where the air was brown and everyone coughed the whole time. The locals responded by shrugging and declaring themselves "bummed". In some cases, they also had an extra glass of wine with dinner, because, hey. You know?
So I am stocking up on wine. Because, hey. You know?