Update: Mount Redoubt remained relatively quiet overnight, and Alaska Airlnes announced that it will be resuming flights in and out of Anchorage this morning.

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Oil platforms shut down: Bruce and Anna stop operating, Dolly Varden is scaled back.

Redoubt information

Volcano facts

• Location: West of Cook Inlet, 103 miles southwest of Anchorage
• Type: Stratovolcano
• Height: 10,197 feet
• Last erupted: 1989-90

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• Simulated flyover of Mount Redoubt

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The Alaska Volcano Observatory reports continuing low-level emissions of steam, gases and ash from the volcano. No ashfall alerts are in effect.

As Redoubt volcano simmered and sputtered on low Tuesday, the Drift River oil terminal downriver continued to pose challenging questions for its owner and government officials over the millions of gallons of crude oil stored there, and when operations could resume.

Air travel also continued to be disrupted, even as some long-stranded passengers began flying to their destinations and were reunited with family and baggage. Alaska Airlines announced Tuesday evening it was canceling all its overnight flights to and from Anchorage because of concerns about ash blowing out of Mount Redoubt from its latest burst about 4 p.m.

A pilot in the area reported an ash cloud to 25,000 feet, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

With oil terminal operations suspended at Drift River, Cook Inlet oil producers are running out of space to store crude. Chevron shut in two of the 10 platforms it operates Monday night, spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz said Tuesday. The Bruce and Anna platforms normally produce about 71,000 gallons of oil a day, Sinz said.

Production was reduced by about 21,000 gallons daily at the Dolly Varden platform because of ash, Sinz said.

Scientists said they believe a dome is forming from cooling lava in Redoubt's crater, but have been unable to confirm the situation visually. They warn that explosive activity could continue on short notice.

"Based on what Redoubt volcano has done in its past historical eruptions in 1904, 1964 and most importantly in 1989-1990, we do expect the volcano to remain active over the next days to weeks," John Power, a research geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory said at news conference Tuesday.

"We are in a bit of a lull today -- things have quieted down significantly," Power said. "But we do expect things to continue and we really encourage people to prepare for additional explosive events that may spread significant ash throughout Southcentral Alaska."

Several mild bursts Tuesday spewed steam, gas and small amounts of ash. One result is volcanic haze that's now stretching over much of Southcentral Alaska, including Anchorage. The Weather Service said ash could fall in an area 30 miles north of Redoubt, but no warning was issued for Anchorage or the Mat-Su Borough.

Flights in and out of Anchorage mostly operated normally through the day, but Alaska Airlines canceled 18 flights between Tuesday evening and this morning.

Officials say the haze is no cause for alarm. The haze is an assortment of steam, gases and dirt getting kicked out from Redoubt, said Nate Hardin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Stagnant air in the area has allowed it to concentrate in the atmosphere above, where it is lingering harmlessly, he said.

"A lot of that can get suspended in the air, so it's just a conglomerate of particulates in the atmosphere," Hardin said. "It may hang around for a little bit, but all it takes is a little something in the upper atmosphere to blow it out."

In Cook Inlet, with Drift River out of commission and no means to move oil to market, only seven days of storage remains at the production facility at Trading Bay, while tanks at Granite Point to the north have about four more days of storage, Chevron's Sinz said.

When the space is gone, either Drift River has to reopen or the platforms must be shut in, Sinz said.

Cathy Foerster of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said some wells could be forever lost if they are not continually producing. But crews can continue to pump oil from those wells into other wells if there are no tanks to store the oil, she said.

At the news conference Tuesday, representatives from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Coast Guard and Cook Inlet Pipeline Co., which owns Drift River, said their main concern continues to be the 6 million gallons of crude stored at the terminal. The facility was evacuated last week, but the pipeline company has sent crews to inspect it when it's been safe to fly.

The problem is that the 40-year-old terminal was built in the river's floodplain. The river is subject to extreme flooding when Redoubt explodes hot ash and gas capable of almost instantly melting adjacent glaciers and snowfields.

The tank farm flooded in Redoubt's 1989-1990 eruption cycle, but a dike completed in August 1990 has so far kept the facility dry this time around. Jim Aldrich, one of the dike's original engineers, has inspected it several times since the worst river flooding on March 22 and said it has withstood the current round of eruptions without damage.

But concern remains about the oil still at the terminal. A worst-case spill would put about half as much oil in Cook Inlet as the Exxon Valdez dumped in Prince William Sound in 1989.

Gary Folley of the DEC and Coast Guard Cmdr. Joseph Lo Sciuto said preparations are under way to bring a tanker to the terminal dock, about a mile offshore, and take off some of the oil. The tanks can't be easily drained because the pump intakes are several feet up their sides. If the tanks would be emptied to the level of the intakes, it would still leave about 2 million gallons at the facility.

Folley said one idea that's surfaced would involve parking a tanker at the dock and pumping oil directly into it, bypassing the Drift River tanks. But the risks of that option have not been fully studied, he cautioned.

Find Richard Mauer online at adn.com/contact/rmauer or call 257-4345.

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