Alaska: 300,000 US residents sent urgent warning to prepare for imminent volcano eruption

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/mount-spurr-active-alaska-volcano-erupting-765402-20250411

Updated 11:49 11 Apr 2025 GMT+1
Published 11:47 11 Apr 2025 GMT+1
300,000 US residents sent urgent warning to prepare for imminent volcano eruption
There have been more than 3,400 earthquakes recorded under the active volcano since April last year
Joe Yates

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are bracing themselves for the worst as scientists predict a nearby volcano is set to erupt.

There are as many as 169 volcanoes that are deemed as 'active' across America's 50 states, but it is Alaska's 11,070-ft-high Mount Spurr that looks ready to blow, close to the state's largest city, Anchorage.​

The volcano, which is just under 2,000-ft taller than the Yellowstone supervolcano, can be seen on a clear day by Alaskans living 81 miles away in the coastal city.

A report by the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), the governing body that frequently studies 90 of the estimated 140 volcanoes believed to be situated on the state, found that there had been more than 100 earthquakes taking place underneath Mount Spurr each week between February and March.

While also stating that there had been more than 3,400 earthquakes to have taken place in and around the volcano since April last year.

Matt Haney, the scientist leading the AVO, explained what an eruption could look like while speaking with Alaska Public Media.​..

 

[sharon sanders]

Current Activity

[SUB]April 11, 2025, 12:23 pm[/SUB]

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Volcanic unrest continues at Mount Spurr volcano and is characterized by ongoing earthquake activity. Seismicity remains elevated with about 55 located earthquakes over the last week. While this is similar to the previous week, earthquake rates have shown variability during this current period of unrest. Ground deformation at Mount Spurr has paused over the last couple of weeks, like the pause in deformation observed for several weeks this past November and December. No sulfur dioxide emissions were detected in satellite data over the past week. AVO is planning to do an overflight of the volcano to measure gas emissions on the next good weather day. High resolution satellite data from April 6 and 8 show some collapsing of ice from the summit crater wall, adding ice to the crater lake and some small snow avalanches, which are common this time of year. Cloudy conditions prevented views of the volcano most of the week. The Mount Spurr monitoring network is functioning well. New snowfall this week has covered up the CKT web camera but other web cameras (like SPCR) are snow free and functioning well.

AVO continues to closely monitor activity at Mount Spurr for signals indicating the volcano is moving closer to an eruption using local seismic, infrasound, and GNSS stations, web cameras, regional infrasound, lightning networks, and satellite data. Based on previous eruptions, additional changes in earthquakes, ground deformation, the summit lake, and fumaroles would be expected if magma moves closer to the surface. Therefore, if an eruption occurred, it would be preceded by additional signals that would allow advance warning.

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more.... https://avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr