An giant ash cloud from a volcano in Eastern Russia has caused massive disruptions in air traffic into Alaska, and blanketed a Peninsula in Russia.
Ash from the Shiveluch volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula spewed as high as 20 kilometers (12.5 miles), according to Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geophysical Survey, Reuters reports. “The ash cloud moved westwards, and there was a very strong fall of ash on nearby villages.”
As of 11 a.m. on Friday, Alaska Airlines had canceled 37 flights, bringing the week’s total to 90 since Wednesday. The airline also warned that further cancellations were possible depending on where the ash cloud migrates.
The cloud is currently hanging over the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific Ocean, according to Nathan Eckstein, a science and operations officer at the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Anchorage, Alaska Public reports.
“We have kind of a complicated system because this volcanic cloud is wrapped into a low that’s south of the Gulf of Alaska,” he said. “Some parts of it have gone into British Columbia and the Yukon and Western Canada.”
Tendrils of the volcanic cloud have even moved over Washington State. The cloud is made up of sulfur dioxide gas — and some ash. Eckstein says they’re analyzing images to see how the cloud is breaking up and where the pieces may move next. -Alaska Public
“The ash is not going to stay suspended forever, it’s going to fall out, it’s going to get rained out if it’s underneath clouds that are precipitating,” he continued.
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