Mt. Fitzherbert

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds that rise above the crater rim would drift to the northeast.

Recent observations: Low level activity continues at the mountain unabated today. A protracted lull in the usual “drumbeat” events was observed yesterday after a somewhat larger earthquake at 17:12 UTC (09:12 PST). The lull lasted about 110 minutes after which the regular pattern of small events occurring every two to three minutes reasserted itself. This phenomenon was similar to but much longer than that observed after a larger quake on the morning of January 1st. Since yesterday morning’s event the mountain has returned to the behavior that has become usual, namely, small events every few minutes with the possibility of larger events occurring intermittently. This pattern of seismicity and that of other monitored parameters suggest that the slow extrusion of the new lava dome is continuing. As has been true since mid-December, winter weather conditions continue to preclude visual observations or field work.