Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands in 2007, the source of the large ash column currently disrupting transpacific air traffic.
It seems that the eruption at Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands of Russia might be a lot bigger than it first seemed. I've gotten a couple reports of flights to Tokyo from North America being diverted or delayed due to the ash threat, including All Nippon Air Flight 1 (Washington DC to Tokyo) and Continental Flight 7 (Houston to Tokyo, diverted to Anchorage). The NASA Earth Observatory has some great new images of the eruption taken today from the MODIS on the Aqua Satellite showing a tiered plume that might be as tall as 16.5 km / 10 miles, which would make sense if flights are being diverted. Air Canada has warned that many flights from Vancouver to the Far East, including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul and Shanghai ...
