ANCHORAGE, Alaska—The activity level of an Alaska volcano has declined after the mountain erupted with a massive ash cloud that prompted the cancellation of dozens of flights.
The U.S. Geological Survey said in a news release late Monday night that the intensity of the eruption had “declined significantly.”
Pavlof Volcano, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, the finger of land that sticks out from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands.
The volcano in the 8,261-foot mountain erupted about 4 p.m. Sunday, spitting out an ash cloud that rose to 20,000 feet.
Lightning over the mountain and pressure sensors indicated eruptions continued overnight Sunday. By 7 a.m. Monday, the ash cloud had risen to 37,000 feet and winds to 50 mph or more had stretched it over more than 400 miles into interior Alaska.
“It’s right in the wheelhouse of a lot of flights crisscrossing Alaska,” said geologist Chris Waythomas, of the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, along with the University of Alaska and the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.
