Forty-one Alaska Airlines flights have been canceled, along with various impacts to regional flights to Cold Bay and Unalaska, after a weekend eruption at Pavlov Volcano continues to spread ash over the Interior.
Travel between Anchorage and Kenai has not been impacted according to Kenai Municipal Airport Manager Mary Bondurant.
Alaska’s most active volcano began erupting Sunday afternoon without warning, sending ash over 400 miles into the air, with some reports of lava fountains seen by nearby communities.
Research Associate Professor Jessica Larsen with the Alaska Volcano Observatory…
Larsen: “The maximum ash cloud altitude that’s been estimated for this eruption is 37,000 feet. Sot hat’s within the range of what Pavlov has produced in the past, but it’s closer to a stronger eruption in 1996 than the most recent eruptive period in 2014.”
She says along with the lava fountains seen by pilots and communities near the volcano, mariners have reported some kind of lava flow reaching the ocean.
Larsen: “So this would be a localized, channelized type of flow. We’re still checking on the nature of that flow, whether it be a Lahar which is sometimes created when hot, volcanic material lands on snow and ice. A lot of our volcanoes at this time of year have some snow and ice cover on them, so we still need to verify what the reports of that flow actually are.”
Larsen says the eruption happened quickly on Sunday, and was not preceded by the usual seismic warning that Pavlof has previously emitted.
