The Pavlof Volcano in southwest Alaska erupted Sunday afternoon sending plumes of ash 3,700 feet high and 400 miles inland across Alaska prompting the cancellation of dozens of flights. In a new release late on Monday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said that the intensity of the eruption had “declined significantly.” The Star reports: Pavlof Volcano, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, is 1005 kilometres southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, the finger of land that sticks out from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands. The volcano in the 8,261-foot (or 2518-metre) mountain erupted about 4 p.m. Sunday, spitting out an ash cloud that rose to 6,000 metres. Lightning over the mountain and pressure sensors indicated eruptions continued overnight Sunday. By 7 a.m. Monday, the ash cloud had risen to 11, 300 metres and winds to 80 km/h or more had stretched it over more than 640 kilometres into interior Alaska. “It’s right in the wheelhouse of a lot of flights criss-crossing Alaska,” said geologist Chris Waythomas, of the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, along with the University of Alaska and the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. In its statement late Monday, the [...]