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 broadly east-northeast to east-southeast.

Recent observations: The lava dome's extrusion continues, as does its inexorable decay by rockfalls and small slope collapses. The past weekend's storm left snow blanketing most of the volcano. A late afternoon overflight Tuesday found the deposit of a collapse from the north flank of “dome 5.” Number 5 indicates the whaleback-shaped dome that was actively expanding until August. The collapse, which gullied the face of the dome, spun out a fine layer of ash directed northward as a narrow plume for 1 km within the crater. Nothing beyond the crater was affected by this small event. Exact timing of the rockfall is uncertain, occurring possibly Monday night or early Tuesday. Its trigger may have been one of the larger earthquakes (in the magnitude range 2-3) that periodically punctuate the seismic record of smaller earthquakes less than M1.