Science & Environment

Ounalashka Corp./Chena Power, LLC (OCCP) will have an extra year to obtain funding for their geothermal power project at Makushin Volcano. 

The Unalaska City Council voted 4 to 1 in favor of pushing the deadline to June of next year at a special meeting Tuesday night.

"The proposed amendment shifts some of the deadlines, but really does not change the underlying agreement," said City Manager Erin Reinders.

Scientists have upgraded the alert level at one of Alaska's most active volcanoes after increased volcanic unrest.

Starting last week, satellites detected an increase of gas emissions and elevated surface temperatures at Cleveland Volcano, which is located on an uninhabited island in the central Aleutians, west of Umnak Island.

The data indicates a potential for increased eruptions, according to Dave Schneider, a geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory, so the AVO has raised the aviation color code to "yellow" and the alert level to "advisory." 

Nearly all of Unalaska lost power for over an hour on Monday evening. 

The outage left everyone on the city's grid, except for those on Standard Oil Hill, without electricity, according to Public Utilities Director Dan Winters.