Alaska Volcano Erupts Out in Middle of Aleutian Islands

A volcano on Alaska's Aleutian Islands erupted on Sunday afternoon, reported the U.S. Geological Survey, sending ash 20,000 feet into the air.

The Associated Press reported the agency as saying the Pavlov Volcano, which is about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, erupted at 4:18 p.m. local time. The agency said the eruption also led to tremors on the ground.

The USGS raised the volcano alert level to "Warning" and the aviation warning to "Red."

The agency said the volcano, which is about 4.4 miles in diameter, has had 40 known eruptions and "is one of the most consistently active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc."

The USGS said that during a previous eruption in 2013, ash plumes rose 27,000 feet. Other eruptions have generated ash plumes as high as 49,000 feet.

The community closest to the volcano is Cold Bay, which is about 37 miles southwest of it.

Alaska, a seismically active state, records anywhere from 80 to 100 quakes daily, most of them hardly ever noticed, according to Reuters. One of the more powerful quakes to hit Alaska in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude temblor that struck beneath the ocean floor near the Aleutian Islands chain in June 2014, but it caused no injuries or major damage.

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