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 eastward to east-northeastward.

Recent observations: Yesterday a crew installed a sensitive tiltmeter in a 7.5-foot-deep hole they drilled into the 1980 to 1986 lava dome. The instrument should be able to detect any slight ground movements related to extrusion of the new lava dome. The hope is to better understand the processes driving the extrusion. A new kind of spider was deployed onto the south side of the old lava dome. It is designed to trap ash and small rock fragments from rockfalls off the new lava dome. The spider can be retrieved by helicopter and the material collected for analysis as one way of monitoring the chemical composition of lava during the ongoing eruption.