Volcanic eruption covers Alaska village in ash, launches lava into sky
Source: Alaska Dispatch News
Pavlof Volcano, on the remote Alaska Peninsula 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, is sending up a huge column of ash that has covered the tiny village of Nelson Lagoon with a blanket of black grit and canceled some flights across the state.
The Pavlof eruption began at 4 p.m. Sunday and is generating seismic tremors at very high levels, lightning and a 400-mile-long ash plume to the northeast rising 37,000 feet, according to a Monday morning update on the Alaska Volcano Observatory’s website.
The level of volcanic activity associated with the eruption is “quite a bit more energetic” than researchers have seen since 1996, said Dave Schneider, a geophysicist with the observatory, which is operated by the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage. Mariners, pilots and residents of Cold Bay -- 37 miles southwest of Pavlof -- reported lava fountaining from the crater at heights up to about a half mile, Schneider said. The heat of the lava is expected to trigger mud flows into remote river valleys.
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Read more: http://www.adn.com/article/20160328/volcanic-eruption-covers-alaska-village-ash-launches-lava-sky
Awesome photos at the link. We're not having any effects here in Anchorage, but this could cause some issues for air travel.
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