An Alaska volcano that has been intermittently oozing lava and releasing small bursts of ash and steam since June erupted with new ferocity on Friday, sending clouds of ash more than 3 miles (4.8 km) into the sky, scientists said.
The latest eruptions from the 8,225-foot (2,507-metre) Veniamin of Volcano, on the Alaska Peninsula nearly 500 miles (805km) southwest of Anchorage, marked some of the strongest unrest detected at the site this summer and may intensify, the Alaska Volcano Observatory warned.
But the eruptions were not believed to be linked to a large, 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Friday in waters off the remote Alaska island of
Adak, nearly 800 miles southwest of Veniamin of in the Aleutians chain, said John Power, the observatory's scientist in charge.
"The plate tectonics are the same, but there's no direct relationship between the volcano and the earthquake," he said.