ANCHORAGE - Augustine Volcano, a conical-shaped peak 171 miles (275 km) southwest of Anchorage, erupted early on Wednesday with an ash cloud that rose to about 30,000 feet (9,100 metres) above sea level, officials said.
The eruption followed months of elevated seismic activity at the island volcano and was no surprise, said Chris Waythomas, a US Geological Survey geologist working at the joint federal-state Alaska Volcano Observatory.
"We had a very good inkling that an eruption was possible. We didn't know exactly when, but all the signs were pointing towards it," he said.
As of midday, there had been no reports of ash reaching any of the coastal communities near the 4,134-foot (1,260-metre) volcano, Waythomas said. "We don't have any confirmed reports of ash fall," he said.
Wednesday's eruption started with an explosion at 4:44 am Alaska Standard Time (9:44 am EST/1444 GMT) and a second explosion 29 minutes later, according to the volcano observatory.
Augustine, the most active of the volcanoes in southern Alaska's Cook Inlet region, last erupted in 1986 and in 1976 before that. If the current activity is similar to those events, it is likely that there will be a series of eruptions before the volcano becomes quiet again, Waythomas said.
"The activity could go on for days to weeks," he said.
In 1986, the first eruptions occurred over a period of days, and then after a brief period of rest, sporadic eruptions continued over a few months, he said.
An eruption at Augustine in 1883 caused a flank collapse that created a tsunami that hit the nearby Native village of Nanwalek.
Although emergency officials were watching for the possibility of a similar wave event, no tsunami warning was considered necessary after Wednesday's eruption, the volcano observatory said.
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