Journal Entry

The Earth below me was hungry last night. At least that's what it felt like! At around 4:30 am in Anchorage I woke up with the sensation of a stomach rumbling all around me. Earthquake! It only registered a 3 on the Richter Scale, which means that most Alaskans probably didn't even wake up. The Richter Scale is the measurement of strength for an earthquake, or seismic event. Three is pretty low- the scale goes up to 10. Each jump to the next number represents a ten-fold increase in the intensity of the quake. So even though it didn't feel much stronger than standing on the Metro platform as the Red Line rolls in, it was officially an earthquake!Earthquakes by night, volcanoes by day! As I am writing this, I am flying over the most rugged and remote part of the Earth I have ever seen. The Sun is coming up over snow-covered mountains and rivers made of ice, coloring the white world below my plane with a glow of pink cotton candy.

Anybody home? Maybe a snow fox or polar bear is hunting in this snowy wilderness.

The landscape is soft and quiet looking in complete contrast to the volcano that is erupting in middle of it all! Mount Redoubt has been erupting off and on for the last week on the southern coast of Alaska. I had my fingers crossed that it would behave long enough to keep my 7 am flight on schedule. So here I am in seat 4A at 19,000 feet and I can smell the sulfur in the air. Volcanoes smell like rotten eggs, this is no beauty contest. If I can even smell it in the plane, imagine how strong it must be from the ground nearby! I look out the window to see a pillow of ash and smoke spewing into the air. The cloud looks like a mushroom and I'm glad to see that the wind is blowing it the in the other direction.

Mount Redoubt in ActionVolcano Alive! Can you see the cloud of ash and smoke rising?

The airplane that I am on only has 10 rows and I am one of 6 passengers on this morning flight. Most of the people aboard are commercial crabbers, men who work in the Bering Sea hauling in boxes of crab from the stormy seas. These guys are tough dudes. They will not be taking sea-sickness medication or snapping pictures of the seals like I will be but they are just as excited about the volcano as I am. As we all have our faces pressed to the windows on the right side of the plane someone says, "I've been flying out here for 8 years and I have never seen anything as cool as that." I guess it was a good day to fly!

To check out more about the Mt. Redoubt eruption you can visit...

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

Later today I will meet up with the Woods Hole scientists and board the Coast Guard Cutter Healy. More from Dutch Harbor soon...

The Sea Below What kind of ice is this polar scientists? A. Glacial Ice B. Icebergs C. Sea Ice Dutch Harbor AirportWelcome to Dutch Harbor!