Alaska Volcano Rumbles
 

Mount Spurr, the volcano on Anchorage's doorstep, is kicking up once again, the first time since it erupted 12 years ago, scientists said this week. Tiny earthquakes by the hundreds have been rumbling beneath the mountain across Cook Inlet from the city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.

The observatory on Monday raised its official level of concern from Code Green, or "No eruption anticipated," to Yellow, meaning "An eruption is possible in the next few weeks and may occur with little or no additional warning."

Scientists hastened to say the earthquake swarm does not necessarily presage an eruption of Spurr, which blew its top three times in 1992 and, in the August '92 explosion, spread a thin, obnoxious layer of ash over Anchorage. "The most likely scenario," geophysicist John Power said, "is that the earthquakes will die off." That's what commonly occurs.

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The national news media caught up with this event today, 48 hours after the Anchorage Daily News broke the story.

Volcano scientists have found a large circular depression in the snow cap of Mount Spurr's summit cone and a pond of icy meltwater at the bottom of the hole, they said Tuesday.

Mount Spurr shows no signs it is about to erupt. The Anchorage-based Alaska Volcano Observatory said in a written statement that there is "no evidence or suggestion of any explosive activity."

But the scientists can't say for sure whether the melting ice, seen at the top of the volcano across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, is linked to the recent increase in earthquakes beneath the 11,070-foot summit, said John Power of the observatory.

During a flight Monday over the mountain, 80 miles west of Anchorage, scientists saw what they estimate to be a hole about 165 feet in diameter and half as much in depth, on a snow-covered slope below the summit.

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