You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system to view these files. Volcanic Ash - Danger to Aircraft in the North Pacific. The world's busy air traffic corridors pass over hundreds of volcanoes capable of sudden, explosive eruptions. In the United States alone, aircraft carry many thousands of passengers and millions of dollars of cargo over volcanoes each day. Volcanic ash can be a serious hazard to aviation even thousands of miles from an eruption.
Airborne ash can diminish visibility, damage flight control systems, and cause jet engines to fail.
USGS and other scientists with the Alaska Volcano Observatory are playing a leading role in the international effort to reduce the risk posed to aircraft by volcanic eruptions. The largest eruption on Earth this century occurred at Novarupta Volcano, Alaska, in June 1912, creating Katmai Caldera and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Such massive eruptions will occur again in southern Alaska, threatening its rapidly growing population.