Mt. Fitzherbert

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that any ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift westward at low altitude. Higher-altitude clouds would drift southeastward early in the day and westward later.

Recent observations: Yesterday field crews placed a new GPS spider on the growing lava dome and collected rock samples. Crews also repaired several seismic stations and radio repeaters. Lava extrusion continues at the north end of the new lava dome, while the high spines continue to crumble and other parts of the lava dome move at relatively low velocities (about one foot per day) or remain stagnant. It is not possible to put a GPS spider on the north end of the dome, which is the mostly rapidly moving part, because it is too steep.