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Another strong eruption on Anatahan
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Posted on Jun 10 2005
Anatahan’s volcano unleashed its fury anew in another strong eruption that kicked up ash to 30,000 feet in the air, resulting in an ashfall in the Northern Islands.
The eruption prompted Gov. Juan N. Babauta to issue a volcanic ash advisory warning Northern Islands residents of ashfall.
The Emergency Management Office said Alamagan, Pagan and Agrihan experienced light ashfall yesterday. It expected this situation to continue until today.
“Gases from the volcano will likely produce volcanic haze and a foul sulfurous odor,” the EMO said. The huge volcanic ash emission spared Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
In a joint report, the EMO and the U.S. Geological Survey said the strong explosion occurred at about 12:08am yesterday. A 7-minute long eruptive pulse sent ash to 30,000 feet in the air.
This makes it one of the volcano’s strongest recent eruptions, second only to the record 50,000 feet elevation set by the volcano’s strongest historical eruption last April 6.
“Since today’s [yesterday’s] eruption to 30,000 feet, the tremor levels have continued to be variable with occasional embedded LP’s [long-period earthquakes] and small explosions,” the agencies said.
Tremor levels on Anatahan remained moderate but they began to increase at about 9pm Thursday. At about 12:04am yesterday, two long-period earthquakes occurred. The strong explosion followed shortly.
The ash plume from the strong eruption extended about 30 nautical miles to the northeast of Anatahan. Yesterday, smaller eruptions sent ash and steam to about 7,000 feet in the air. The plume moved westward and extended about 2,000 nautical miles west of Anatahan.
The EMO cautioned aircraft that conditions could change rapidly, advising aircraft to pass upwind of Anatahan or beyond 10 nautical miles downwind from the island and reminding them to exercise due caution within 10 nautical miles.
In its April 6 eruption, the volcano expelled about 50 million cubic meters of ash and sent plumes up to 50,000 feet in the air.
Citing satellite monitoring by the Air Force Weather Agency, EMO and the USGS said yesterday that the volcano released a dense ash plume to 12,000 feet, which moved northwesterly.
