Picture courtesy of ash-tronauts: Devastating beauty of erupting Alaskan volcano
Channel: Aliens insider
Date: 2015-07-08

Picture courtesy of ash-tronauts: Devastating beauty of erupting Alaskan volcano as seen from International Space Station
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329733/Alaskan-volcano-pictured-space-Nasa-astronauts-capture-eruption-International-Space-Station.html


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Belching ash and spewing lava, Pavlof Volcano in Alaska has been erupting for ten days - and Nasa today released this remarkable picture of it, taken by crew on board the International Space Station.

One of the region's most active volcanoes, its latest eruption has forced regional flight cancellations and dusted some nearby communities with ash.

Pavlof released ash plumes as high as 22,000ft (6,700m) over the weekend, with the cloud blowing eastward and the eruption showing no signs of abating, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The lava from its 8,261ft (2,518m) peak has also created huge steam clouds on meeting the mountain's snow.

While the ash plume was still too low on Monday to affect commercial airliners flying at least 30,000ft above sea level between Asia and North America, it still interfered with schedules for regional carriers serving rural fishing towns and native villages that lack outside road access.

PenAir, an Anchorage-based company specialising in travel in southwestern Alaska, briefly stopped flights to four destinations to wait for ash to dissipate, said Danny Seybert, the carrier's chief executive. 'We've had about a dozen cancellations due to the volcano,' he said.
PenAir's planes fly at altitudes between 15,000 and 20,000ft - exactly where they could encounter ash, depending on wind direction, according to Seybert.

Among the cancellations were flights in and out of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, the top-volume seafood port in the United States, he said.