On Dec. 15, 1989, a pilot who had flown a 747 passenger jet all the way from Amsterdam was looking forward to landing in Anchorage. There, he would take a short break before continuing to Tokyo. Descending over Southcentral Alaska, he and his co-pilot saw what looked like an inky storm cloud ahead. Flying into […]
Puyulek—Volcano Puyulek yakguani et’aartut, ingrini.—The volcanoes are far away, in the mountains. Although there are no volcanoes in the Kodiak Archipelago, the mountainous Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Island chain are formed largely by volcanic activity. Along this expanse of Alaska’s coast there are at least eighty volcanoes that have been active in the past […]
Two-hundred and thirty-six years ago, when Gen. George Washington marched back into New York City as British troops were walking out, a volcano erupted in Iceland. For eight months of 1783, Laki volcano spewed lava and belched noxious fumes into the atmosphere. One-quarter of the residents of Iceland died, and the sulfur-rich gases that spread […]
[dropcap]H[/dropcap]eavy rains are complicating efforts to provide aid to communities on Indonesia’s remote western islands cut by last week’s massive tsunami that killed 429 people. The rains have made roads impassible, holding up convoys delivering heavy machinery and relief supplies to isolated areas, forcing disaster officials to send helicopters to drop supplies and evacuate residents. There […]