A volcano on a remote Alaska island has begun erupting, but poses slight danger to people or aircraft, officials said Tuesday.
The eruption at Cleveland Volcano is a sluggish effusion of magma that is forming a lava dome, and not an explosive eruption that generates big ash plumes, said John Power, the scientist-in-charge at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
"So far, it's now lava as far as we can tell from our satellite imagery and the people who have managed to see it from passing airplanes," he said.
The volcano is in a very remote area, on unoccupied Chuginadak Island, and that lowers the danger level.
"Surely, if there were people who were going to be in the area, they would need to be worried but there aren't many of those folks there right now," he said.
Currently the lava dome is restricted within the summit crater. Power said the biggest danger would be if the lava dome began to grow large sufficient to spill out, then it could begin to produce ash-producing explosions.
"If it were to explode and push a group of ash up into the flight levels, then it would be a much more dangerous condition," he said.
Based upon past annotations at several volcanoes, dome growth like this can go on for weeks to months.
"It's something we're going to be watching very directly, or as close as we can given our operational constraints there," he said.
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