Winds whip up volcanic ash from 1912 eruption in Alaska

ALASKA: Volcano scientists issued an alert Wednesday, warning that a cloud of ash — from an eruption more than century ago — was headed toward Alaska’s Kodiak Island.

The ash is from the powerful 1912 eruption of Novarupta, a volcano on the Alaska Peninsula that dropped volcanic ash that is still visible today.

Strong northwesterly winds in the vicinity of Katmai National Park and Preserve and Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes on Wednesday kicked up the loose volcano ash.

“Generally, this time of year, we get these some these northwestern winds that can come down from the Katmai region and really scour some of the free ash that that’s deposited from the 1912 eruption and then bring it up to height,” Hans Schwaiger, a U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, told The Associated Press. The three-day Novarupta eruption, one of the world’s largest, began June 6, 1912, and sent ash as high as 100,000 feet (30,480 metres) above the Katmai region, located about 250 miles (402 kilometres) southwest of Anchorage.

– ABC NEWS