In this photograph supplied by the Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey is the Tanaga Volcano close to Adak, Alaska, on May 23, 2021. A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the previous few weeks has intensified at a distant Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, a attainable indication of an impending eruption. The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert stage to advisory standing for Tanaga Volcano late Tuesday, March 7, 2023, after the quakes turned very vigorous.
| Photo Credit: AP
A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the previous few weeks has intensified at a distant Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, a attainable indication of an impending eruption.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert stage to advisory standing for Tanaga Volcano late Tuesday after the quakes turned very vigorous.
“We started seeing a whole lot of earthquakes occurring, one after the other, several per minute,” mentioned John Power, a analysis geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey stationed in Anchorage at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
There have been tons of of small earthquakes, none bigger than magnitude 2.75, however they’re concentrated beneath the summit of the volcano, he mentioned.
“That indicates that we’re seeing significant unrest at the volcano,” Power mentioned.
“Whether or not this will lead to an eruption is something we can’t say at this point in time,” he mentioned. “But we are concerned about it enough that we have gone and elevated the warning level.”
While the rise causes concern, he mentioned many instances earthquake exercise will drop off with no eruption.
“It’s anybody’s guess as to where this particular round of earthquake activity may end up,” he mentioned.
The volcano is on an uninhabited island within the western Aleutians, about 1,250 miles (2,012 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. There are not any communities or buildings there, however Adak, a metropolis of about 170 residents on one other island, is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away and could see ashfall.
If the volcano have been to erupt, the most important risk could be to plane. The Aleutians are under the routes that jets fly between North America and Asia. Volcanic ash is angular and sharp and may trigger an airplane engine to close down. Previous eruptions had each ash clouds and viscous lava that strikes very slowly away from the mountain, very similar to what occurred at Mount St. Helens in Washington state in 1980.
“It’s very totally different than what you’d see, for instance, in Hawaii, Kilauea or Mauna Loa, the place you see these stunning purple rivers of lava flowing down the facet of the volcano,” Power mentioned.
Tanaga is definitely half of a three-volcano advanced on the island. It’s the tallest of the three at 5,925 toes (1,806 meters). It sits within the center, with Sajaka, a 4,443-foot volcano to its west. Sajaka had an older cone that collapsed into the North Pacific Ocean with a brand new cone that has emerged.
To the east of Tanaga is Takawangha, a 4,75-foot (1,449-meter) volcano that’s largely ice-covered aside from 4 craters, the Alaska Volcano Observatory says.
The final recognized eruption for Tanaga was in 1914. It erupted twice within the late 1700s and once more in 1829.
The observatory in a launch mentioned there are not any recognized eruptions of Takawangha or Sajaka. However, discipline work has indicated that eruptions might have occurred from these volcanos and have been attributed to Tanaga.
