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 north-northwesterly in the early part of the day, transitioning to east-northeasterly by this evening.

Recent observations: Observers at Coldwater reported seeing an intense glow and vertical column over the space of several minutes at ~9:20 pm PDT last night, corresponding with two rockfall signals recorded by seismometers at 9:20 and 9:27 pm. Another rockfall was associated with a M 2.9 earthquake at 10:49pm PDT. Pictures from the Sugarbowl camera show that the new lava spine continues to grow and steepen with the formerly active spine continuing to sag and collapse, a scenario ripe for continued production of rockfalls and associated ash plumes and (at night) light shows. Seismic and ground-deformation data indicate that no significant changes have occurred in the level of activity over the last 24 hours. Yesterday field crews installed several temporary seismic instruments on the flanks and north end of the crater floor, repositioned several GPS stations, and did geologic mapping along the flanks. Weather permitting crews today will install more temporary seismometers, continue geologic mapping efforts, attempt to move several GPS spiders, and acquire rock samples from the new lava spine.