A huge ball of fire above the Alaskan skies sets off volcanic alarms

The meteor’s passage activated several systems designed to detect low-frequency sounds during volcanic eruptions.

A large ball-shaped meteor lit up the burning western Alaskan skies and activated several sensors installed to detect volcanic activity. reported the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Local residents reported on October 15 that a meteor passed through various areas of the US state. A witness described it as a file “huge ball of light in the sky”, while another compared it to “fireworks” when it was broken in four. The object is believed to have exploded somewhere east of the city of Kaltag, experts from the American Geophysical Union said in a note.

As the object passed, six sensor alarms were triggered monitoring volcanic activity on the Kenai Peninsula. These systems are designed to analyze changes in atmospheric pressure and detect low-frequency sounds during volcanic eruptions.

USGS specialists noted that the event also triggered the alarms of Mount Spurr, a large volcano in the area that last erupted in 1992. However, as other monitoring systems have also been activated, the specialists have suffered excluding that there was an eruption in the volcano, recoge News Week.

Scientists from the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory worked with researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute to investigate the cause and found that infrasound, in addition to detecting volcanic activity and explosions, is also a good tool for measure the trajectory of space rocks entering the atmosphere of our planet.

“I don’t normally work with meteors, but they are often excellent sources of infrasound to help better understand the performance of our networks, and I think they provide valuable insight into the meteors and the fireballs themselves,” said scientist David Fee.