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Thick Anatahan ash rising up to 14,000 feet
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Posted on May 11 2005
Anatahan’s active volcano continues to spit out a thick ash cloud that is currently rising to 14,000 feet, according to the latest joint report from the Emergency Management Office and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report stated that the ash is moving west to northwest at 10-15 knots. Satellite images show that the ash extends in a triangular shape from the summit of the volcano, extending 240 nautical miles to the west-southwest before moving 275 nautical miles to the northwest.
A thin layer of ash at 10,000 feet extends beyond the thick ash another 550 nautical miles.
As in the past few days, a broad swath of vog—volcanic smog—currently extends 1,225 nautical miles west, almost reaching the Philippines and 775 nautical miles north-northwest from Anatahan.
Anatahan was recently jolted by two long-period earthquakes registering a magnitude of 1.5 on the Richter scale. The first quake occurred Monday night at 10:59pm followed by another at 3:38am the next morning. The quakes were followed by continuous low amplitude tremors that are still ongoing.
On May 9, a brief period of tremor occurred between 2pm and 3pm. Two long-period earthquakes of about 1.5 magnitude then occurred at 10:59pm and at 3:38am of May 10, after which low amplitude tremor began to occur continuously and continued throughout yesterday.
After surging on May 5 to a moderately high level, the tremors dropped back to a fairly low level on May 6 and 7, and dropped further to near background on the 8.
For more information, contact EMO geophysical seismic technician Juan Takai Camacho at 322-9528 or email at juantcamacho@hotmail.com; geophysical instrument specialist Ramon Chong at 322-9528 or email at rcchongemo@hotmail.com; or USGS geologist Frank Trusdellat (808) 967-8812, fax: (808) 967-8890, or email at trusdell@usgs.gov.
