Alaska Volcano Boils Up, Melts Glaciers

Redoubt Volcano erupted more vigorously Tuesday than it has since it first exploded to life, and intense heat from the exploding mountain was melting nearby glaciers, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported.

Airlines, virtually grounded by volcanic ash clouds, were taking the unusual step of telling many travelers to stay put for the holidays, or at least until the volcano calms down and flying returns to normal.

But the U.S. Postal Service found a way to get mail in and out of Alaska. It chartered a cargo company’s slow-speed 1950s-vintage piston-driven planes, which are less susceptible to airborne ash than air-sucking jet engines. Northern Air Cargo was able to reduce a backlog of Christmas mail that has been piling up in Anchorage and Seattle warehouses.

The 10,197-foot mountain, 110 miles southwest of Anchorage, has been trembling constantly since erupting last Thursday for the fourth time this century. But on Tuesday morning it shook more violently than since the first blow-outs of its six-day eruption, shooting ash 33,000 feet high.

Geologists got their first recent look at Redoubt during a break in ash and snow clouds Monday and reported fierce steam from melting ice, but they saw no lava flowing, geologist Steve Brantley said.

“There is some ice and snow being melted by the current activity,” Brantley said, causing plumes of steam along with ash.

Intense heat from the volcano, possibly from molten material yet to emerge from inside the mountain, has been enough to cause melting in glaciers, which otherwise may go centuries with no significant melting other than a little summer runoff, officials said.

There was no way of determining how much ice and snow had melted or how significant the water flow was, Brantley said. The Drift River, which flows by the volcano and past oil storage tanks holding 38 million gallons of Cook Inlet crude oil, had not overflowed its banks as in past eruptions.

Tuesday’s new eruptions pumped more ash into the sky, but winds took some of it west for a change, meaning that planes might make it in and out of Anchorage using Canadian airspace to the east, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Steucke said.

Anchorage has escaped major ashfall, but that was little consolation to the stranded crowds at Anchorage International Airport. Airlines, frustrated by the continuing disruption, were unable to promise to deliver holiday travelers to their destinations.

Delta canceled flights for a fourth straight day Tuesday.