Volcanoes Alaska

Redoubt Volcano began erupting again Tuesday evening, sending an ash plume as high as 45,000 feet into the air and presumably destroying a lava dome it had been building for several days. "It's erupting," said Robert McGimsey of the Alaska Volcano Observatory. "It's a big one." Monitoring equipment on the volcano and elsewhere indicated a strong eruption, said David Stone, a geophysicist with the volcano observatory.

Redoubt Volcano took a breather from its explosive eruptions, prompting a mad rush by airlines to get stranded holiday travelers to their destinations, but the still-trembling mountain forced the evacuation and shutdown of an oil facility. The Drift River oil storage site, which handles crude oil production from Cook Inlet and pumps oil onto tankers bound for the West Coast, was shut down.

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.

Redoubt Volcano continued to spew ash and steam over much of south-central Alaska, and one family was evacuated Sunday from a lodge in the shadow of the mountain. The 10,197-foot volcano 110 miles southwest of Anchorage, which exploded Thursday, erupted with greater force Sunday afternoon, the U.S Geological Survey said. An airline pilot spotted the ash plume at 27,000 feet, drifting northeastward toward Alaska's most populous area.

Redoubt Volcano continued to belch ash Saturday, grounding flights for thousands of Christmas vacation travelers and triggering power failures, authorities said. A shift in the wind dropped ash onto Anchorage for the first time since the volcano burst to life Thursday, and authorities warned people with lung ailments to stay indoors. Police in Soldotna and Anchorage advised leaving cars parked to limit the chance of engine damage.

A Boeing 747 passenger jet made a safe emergency landing here Friday after it flew through volcanic ash and temporarily lost power to all four engines, the Federal Aviation Administration said. No injuries were reported. The engine problems were reported immediately after KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 867 passed through ash from Redoubt volcano, which erupted Thursday and Friday. The volcano is 115 miles southwest of Anchorage.

A volcano that had been dormant for 23 years rumbled to life on Thursday, sending a black cloud of ash and steam 7 miles into the air. The billowing cloud from the 10,197-foot Redoubt volcano, 110 miles southwest of here, passed over Anchorage but dusted several smaller communities to the north with gray, gritty soot. "It was like a real fine sleet," said Doug Breza, a service station employee in the town of Wasilla, 50 miles north of Anchorage. "All the cars are sort of coated with dust."

A remote volcano in the Aleutian Islands has erupted for the first time in 13 years, spewing ash 2 1/2 miles high but posing no immediate threat to a nearby village, the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday. Korovin volcano, about 1,100 miles southwest of Anchorage, is 12 miles from the tiny village of Atka.