Erupting Alaska Volcanoes

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Three remote Alaska volcanoes are in different states of eruption. One of the volcanos is producing lava while the other two is blowing steam and ash.

About:

• None of the small communities surrounding the volcanoes has been affected, till now.
• Webcams on August 6 showed episodic low-level ash emissions from Pavlof Volcano.
• Following the emissions, the observatory has raised the volcano’s threat level from yellow to orange that indicates an eruption is underway with minor volcanic-ash emissions.
• Ash clouds were rising just above the volcano’s 2,518-metre summit and were drifting about 9.7 kilometres to the south before dissipating.
• The Pavlof Volcano was last erupted in 2016 and dropped some ash on the Nelson Lagoon community of Alaska.
• The observatory also received reports from the Adak community regarding a lava fountain at the summit of the Great Sitkin volcano.
• Semisopochnoi Volcano also erupted at Aleutian Island.

Pavlof  Volcano

It is a stratovolcano of the Aleutian Range on the Alaska Peninsula. It is one of the most active in the United States since 1980. It has erupted in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986–1988, 1996–1997, 2007, 2013. It erupted two times in 2014. Its last eruption was recorded in March 2016. This volcano mostly erupts Basaltic andesite lava with 53 % SiO2. This volcano is monitored by the Alaska Volcano Observatory which is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey, Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.

Great Sitkin Volcano

It is a stratovolcano comprising of caldera and dome. It is located about 1,851 kilometres southwest of Anchorage.

Semisopochnoi Volcano

This volcano is located about 241 kilometres away on an uninhabited island at the western end of the Aleutian Islands. It has been erupting intermittently. On August 4, 2021, it spitted an ash cloud that went about 3,048 metres into the air.