Alaska’s big volcanic blast that Instagram missed -- until now

Thank goodness for Throwback Thursday (#TBT).

How else would this mind-blowing photograph of Alaska's Augustine Volcano billowing smoke and ash become a social media hit? The photo was taken on March 27, 2006 -- four years before Instagram was even around.

Luckily the Department of Interior thought to make it a #TBT post on Thursday. Almost 30,000 people "liked" it by day's end.

By the way, the volcano is on a teensy island, a dot on the map in the Cook Inlet on the state's south-central coast. It was taken by Cyrus Read, who works for the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Enjoy!

Ten years ago, Augustine #volcano in Alaska swelled, rumbled and erupted. A gigantic cloud of ash rose above the mountain and two lava flows crawled down its sides. The #eruption resulted in #ash falling throughout south-central #Alaska and disrupted air traffic over the state. Historically, #AugustineVolcano has been the most active volcano in Alaska’s #CookInlet region with recent eruptions in 1976, 1986 and 2006. Photo by Cyrus Read, @USGS. #tbt

A photo posted by U.S. Department of the Interior (@usinterior) on Mar 24, 2016 at 8:21am PDT

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