Scientists raised the alert level for a remote Aleutian volcano on Monday after an explosion was detected on the mountain and heard by residents of a tiny village some 45 miles (72 km) away, a monitoring website said.
Cleveland Volcano, a 5,676-foot (1,730-metre) peak on the uninhabited Chuginadak Island, about 940 miles (1,504 km) southwest of Anchorage, was raised to orange from yellow by the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
The orange code, the second-highest on the scale, is issued when a volcano is "exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption," according to the observatory. A red code is issued when an eruption is imminent or underway.
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