Redoubt Spits Up 50K-Foot Plume

(NEWSER) - The fifth and largest eruption of Alaska’s Mount Redoubt occurred this morning, sending a plume of ash 60,000 feet above sea level, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The ash is spreading north into inhabited areas, but winds moving toward Anchorage are too high to dump ash there. “That’s going to stay there,” an expert said. While the airport there is still open, Alaska Airlines has canceled 19 flights. More»

Alaska Airlines knows how avoid volcano chaos

(NEWSER) - That Icelandic volcano may have taught European airlines a lesson Alaska Airlines learned from Mount St. Helens 30 years ago. After its planes were grounded for days by the eruption in Washington state, the airline developed an effective way to navigate safely around volcanic ash. Its experience suggests that Europe's travel chaos could have been avoided with the right procedures, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Alaska’s Mount Redoubt volcano is rumbling again, and an explosive eruption could come at any time, the Anchorage Daily News reports. “Seismic and rockfall activity increasing,” warned a volcano observatory. “Eruption likely in coming days; could occur at any time with little or no warning.” Redoubt last blew its top April 4 after weeks of explosions that sent ash miles into the air. More»

(AP) - Alaska's Mount Redoubt has erupted again, spewing an ash cloud 50,000 feet up into the air. The Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage says the volcano had a significant eruption after midnight today, and coughed up ash that is expected to move north toward the Alaska Range, missing Anchorage, which is about 100 miles from the volcano. More»

In wake of explosion

(NEWSER) - Mount Redoubt erupted in Alaska, but Bobby Jindal is feeling the heat in Louisiana, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Democrats are raking the governor over the coals for scoffing at “something called volcano monitoring” as an example of wasteful spending in his televised speech last month. “It’s not a laugh line and it’s not a sound bite in Alaska,” said a spokesman for Sen. Mark Begich. More»