Volcano Erupts in Remote Alaska (I hope these 9 people are okay!)

[FourScore]

A volcano erupted Saturday with little warning on a remote island in Alaska, sending residents of a nearby ranch fleeing from falling ash and volcanic rock.

The Okmok Caldera erupted late Saturday morning, just hours after seismologists at the Alaska Volcano Center began detecting a series of small tremors.

The explosion flung an ash cloud at least 50,000 feet high, said geophysicist Steve McNutt.

Nine people, including three children, were at Fort Glenn, a private cattle ranch six miles south of the volcano on Umnak Island, located in the western Aleutians. They managed to call authorities on a satellite phone before losing their connection, according to the Coast Guard, which had a cutter en route to the island, about 860 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Lee Goldsmith said those at Fort Glenn reported rock and ash falling around them.

A Coast Guard cutter set out for the ranch but wasn't expected to arrive until Sunday morning, Goldsmith said. Because of the ash and rock, the Coast Guard could not send aircraft, Goldsmith said.

The Fort Glenn residents were planning to use a small private helicopter to fly to nearby Unalaska Island, which is separated from Fort Glenn by a five-mile channel.

"They can only carry one person at a time in that helicopter," Goldsmith said.

Okmok is 60 miles west of the busy fishing port of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island. Ash was reported falling in the region, McNutt said.

MORE:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Remote_Alaska_volcano_erupts_spewing_rock_0712.html

[Muttocracy]

1. wow, here's USGS site to check for updates

http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/activity/status.php

and

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Okmok.php

[FourScore]

2. This is one of my favorite volcano site.

www.volcanolive.com

He has a Breaking News section that has all the world's activity listed. He travels frequently and does tours of volcanos. Right now, he's on such a tour so there are no new updates on his website. Still, take a look. It's an interesting site.

[Muttocracy]

9. neat! thanks.

[here_is_to_hope]

3. Wiki page says there are 39 people who call

the island home.
Maybe only one side is at risk?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umnak

[Canuckistanian]

4. There's a cattle ranch on the Aleutians?

That's the most startling thing to me.

[briv1016]

5. This can't be good

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webicorders/webicorder.php?volcname=Okmok

[briv1016]

6. Ash cloud imagery (IR)

[SpiralHawk]

8. Ash cloud 50,000 feet up...

Now the Sylphs -- The Wind Nations -- assume direction.

[briv1016]

7. Some good news

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8666582

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Nine people were ferried to safety after a volcano on the Aleutian island where they live erupted Saturday, sending ash and rocks falling to the ground below.

Okmok Volcano on Unmak Island erupted at about noon Saturday.

Local flights were cancelled as the eruption sent a huge ash cloud into the air nearly 35,000 feet.

As the cloud passed by Unalaska, it left ash on cars and the ground below.

A cattle ranch shares Unmak Island with the volcano separated by just six miles.

Six adults and three children staying there were evacuated after placing an emergency call to report falling ash and rock from the eruption that caught everyone off guard.

"This eruption came out of the blue in a lot of ways," said volcanologist Dave Schneider. "There is only maybe about one and a half hour or so of precursory activity before it went into full born eruption, so it did come as a surprise to us."

The volcano erupted last in 1997.

[FourScore]

10. That's wonderful!! Thank you so much for the update.

It must have been very frightening for those people.

[greendog]

11. Umnak Island is home to the oldest continuously occupied community...

...in the entire world.

Nikolski has been inhabited for at least 4000 years.