After several months of inactivity, Cleveland Volcano erupted on Saturday.
“It was a fairly nice-sized explosion. Put ash up to about, we estimate, 20,000 feet,” says Alaska Volcano Observatory seismologist John Power.
He says the ash cloud didn’t interfere with local aviation, even though satellite images show it drifted to within 60 miles of Unalaska. Nevertheless, the Observatory has raised the aviation alert level to orange. That’s because this latest eruption probably isn’t the volcano’s last.
“Given Cleveland’s activity over the past year, year and a half, we’d expect to see more similar events like this in the future,” Power says. “How regularly they may occur is anyone’s guess.”
Cleveland’s last major eruption was in June, followed by some rumblings in August.
