Mt. Fitzherbert

Potential ash hazards: Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds rising above the crater would be transported to the southwest early today and to the south or east later today.

Recent observations: Clouds obscure views into the crater today. An earthquake (M3.2) and rock-fall avalanche occurred last night at 9:04 p.m. PDT (0404 UTC). Pilots reported a steam plume that rose above the crater rim associated to this event. The plume contained very little ash and communities downwind reported no ash fall, but a thin coat of ash to the west of the spine appears in crater photos. Small earthquakes are occurring at the rate of one every 1 to 3 minutes, indicating continuing lava extrusion. Rockfalls from the growing spine are likely to occur sporadically in the foreseeable future. Some larger rockfalls, such as that of last night, will loft ash plumes a few thousand feet above the crater rim.