Unalaska, AK – Mount Cleveland erupted a small plume of ash that rose about 15,000 to 20.000 feet into the air around 11 pm on Friday. Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said the small eruption only lasted a few minutes. The ash cloud drifted to the northeast and did not cause any problems. AVO geologist Michelle Coombs said this is normal behavior for Cleveland.

"The eruption on Friday was kind of what Cleveland does. It has lots of these little things and it could easily be having a few more little pops like this in the next month or two. We'll just be keeping our eyes open," she said.

Coombs said Cleveland usually sends out a couple of plumes of ash then quiets down again instead of producing a large eruption. It spewed ash this summer and the year before. The AVO does not have seismic equipment on the volcano and monitors its actions via satellite images.

"This morning the weather was clear over Cleveland. We saw that there was no ash, no thermal anomalies, so it looked, at the moment, like it's quiet," Coombs said on Monday.

The AVO raised the color code on Cleveland to 'orange' over the weekend but plans on lowering it to 'yellow' later today. Cleveland's last large eruption was in 2001 and sent lava into the ocean. The AVO hopes to put seismic equipment on volcano in the next few years. Mt. Cleveland is in the Islands of the Four Mountains group, about 150 miles west of Unalaska.