(TNS) - On the Big Island of Hawaii, the ongoing eruption of Kilauea volcano is giving residents a lesson in what it's like to live on the flanks of an active volcano.

Fissures oozing lava won't be opening up in southcentral Alaska anytime soon. But the region around Alaska's biggest city is hardly a stranger to volcanic eruptions and the mayhem they can cause.

Our closest neighbor volcanoes have an explosive, active history. Mount Iliamna, Augustine Volcano, Mount Redoubt and Mount Spurr — "have done some really bad things," said Chris Waythomas, a research geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.

Over the past 60 years alone, Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska has been repeatedly dusted by ash from erupting volcanoes strung down the western side of Cook Inlet. Ash from exploding volcanoes has shut down airports, fouled car engines and machinery and sent residents stocking up on air filters and face masks, most recently when Redoubt erupted in March of 2009.

But any of those events pale in comparison to what could happen if one of Alaska's 52 historically active volcanoes erupted on a truly major scale.

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