Alert level at Redoubt lowered to Yellow … is this the end?

Redoubt steaming in early 2009. Image courtesy of Calvin Hall.

It has been a while since we spoke of Redoubt, but now it seems the reason why might be that the eruption is ending. AVO lowered the Alert Level at Redoubt to Yellow from Orange, indicating that they believe the volcano is less likely to have a large eruption. This doesn’t mean that it is out of the question, but rather that signs seem to be pointing to the idea that the eruption is waning.

AVO sums the change:

Seismic, satellite, gas, and deformation observations over the past few weeks indicate that growth of the lava dome at Redoubt has significantly slowed, if not stopped, and therefore it is possible that the current eruptive activity has ended. However, it is unknown if this represents the end of the 2009 eruption of Redoubt or if the activity has only paused temporarily and might resume in the next months.

We can expect the dome to continuing steaming for some time even if the dome has fully stopped growing – the rock underneath the dome will stay hot – and you can still check that out on the webcams. It did take a while before CVO officially ended the 2004-2008 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, so don’t look for AVO to put an “official” end to this eruption for a while. Of course, the last time they tried this, Redoubt came back with a vengeance, so it will still be closely watched, but for now, it sounds like the volcano is taking the early summer off.