Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, USA
U.S. Geological Survey photo taken 4 March 1990 (fair use policy)
Redoubt Volcano has the typical cone shape of the young and active Alaskan stratovolcano. Like its many mates in the Aleutian volcanic arc, it erupts magmas derived from the crust of the Pacific plate being subducted beneath Alaska's segment of the North American plate.
Redoubt sits across Cook Inlet from Homer, Alaska. On that waterway travel all the ships going to and from Anchorage, and the oil tankers carrying Alaskan crude to the Lower 48 aren't much farther away.
But the scariest hazard that Redoubt poses is to airplanes. On December 15, 1989, a Boeing 747 flew through Redoubt's eruption plume, and all four of its engines choked on volcanic ash. The plane lost half its altitude and was not far from the nearby mountains when the pilots got the engines going again. Incidents like these are the reason for the world's network of nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers, which alert airlines and agencies whenever characters like Redoubt act up. The Anchorage VAAC keeps an eye on it. The 2009 eruption of Redoubt pushed this volcano into the headlines for many weeks. The Alaska Volcano Observatory maintains a special page for this active volcano.
