Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured the ash plume from Pavlof Volcano on May 18. The plume extended southeastward over the North Pacific Ocean.

Photo by NASA

“This morning the seismic tremor was down just a little bit from yesterday. We’re hoping it calms down before too long, but it might last for awhile.”

Jeffrey Freymueller was on the phone last week with the electric utility in Cold Bay, a community about 40 miles from the Pavlof Volcano, which had been erupting for more than a week. The utility was wondering how much ash fall to expect and whether it would need to shut down its diesel generators. The ash had exceeded 20,000 feet, grounding several regional flights.

The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community, provides this column as a public service.

Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.

On June 6, 1912, if you happened to be sitting on a log outside your cabin near Fairbanks, Juneau or Dawson City, you would have heard an explosion.