Alaska volcano spews high ash cloud, triggering aviation warning

ANCHORAGE, United States - An Alaska volcano that has been rumbling since midsummer shot ash about 8km into the sky on Sunday (Jan 19), triggering a warning to aviators and dusting one small fishing village, officials reported.

Shishaldin volcano, one of the most active in Alaska, kicked out a plume of ash that satellite imagery detected as high as 8,535m above sea level, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the joint federal-state-university office that tracks the state's many volcanoes.

The plume stretched about 145km as of midday, blowing mostly east and over the Gulf of Alaska, said the observatory.

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A sprinkling of ash was reported in the tiny Aleutian village of False Pass, about 37km north-east of Shishaldin, said Mr David Fee, the observatory's University of Alaska Fairbanks coordinating scientist.

"Someone reported some ash on their windshield," he said.

False Pass has a year-round population of about 40, according to state data, but draws many more people during the summer fishing season.

Also pouring out of Shishaldin's caldera on Sunday was a stream of red-hot lava, the observatory reported.

Shishaldin has been in an on-and-off eruptive phase since July, occasionally dribbling lava down its snowy flanks and puffing ash and steam.

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Most of the ash production has been relatively minor, but Sunday's event was serious enough to warrant a "code red" warning for air traffic to avoid the area, the second such warning in the volcano's current eruptive phase, Mr Fee said."It's a higher plume. It's sustained. And it's a higher concentration," he said.

Shishaldin, about 1,095km south-west of Anchorage, is the tallest mountain in the Aleutian chain, rising to 2,857m in elevation.

The upper two-thirds of the spherical peak are usually cloaked year-round in snow and ice, according to the observatory.

It is in a cluster of frequently erupting volcanoes in the eastern Aleutians.

"This is the most active region in Alaska for volcanic activity," Mr Fee said.