ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – August 18, 1992, was a cloudy day in Anchorage, now-retired Volcanologist Game McGimsey recounted, and that weather shaped the outcome of his evening.
It was late afternoon by the time the Alaska Volcano Observatory — where he worked at the time — started getting calls from the Federal Aviation Administration saying pilots were reporting something was going on at Mount Spurr.
Knowing it had been nearly two months since Spurr last erupted, the scientists went to the machine where the seismic signals were recorded, “and we didn’t see anything,” he said. Earthquakes near the volcano can be a sign of activity…