Turbulence leads to early rain of ash

From San Francisco, at the 2001 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union

A new aerodynamic analysis suggests that small particles of ash in a turbulent volcanic plume can fall nearer their source than researchers had thought.

On Aug. 18, 1992, Mount Spurr–a 3,374-meter-tall volcano about 125 kilometers west of Anchorage, Alaska–sent a plume of ash more than 10 km into the sky.