Four days after its most recent eruption, Alaska’s Mount Redoubt erupted again on March 26, 2009. The volcano sent a plume of ash at least 65,000 feet above sea level, said the National Weather Service. The Alaska Volcano Observatory reported that the eruption also sent a lahar, a flood of rock and water, into the Drift River Valley.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the aftermath of the eruption at 2:40 p.m. local time, a little more than five hours after the large eruption. A cloud of tan ash extends from the volcano south and east. The ash colors the clouds south of Anchorage—an indication that the volcanic plume rose above the cloud level. A dark-colored streak extends south of the volcano where ash had fallen on the snow.
The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.
References & Resources
- Alaska Volcano Observatory. (2009, March 26). Alaska Volcano Observatory Current Status Report. Accessed March 27, 2009.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
