Alaska Update: Possible Small Eruption from Kanaga and Continued Activity at Cleveland

Add another Alaskan volcano to the list of recently restless systems. Kanaga, near Adak (50 km to the east), has been reportedly erupting over the weekend, with both a weak ash plume spotted via satellite and volcanic tremor showing up on the local seismic stations (however, the local station for Kanaga is down). All of this prompted AVO to raise the alert status to Yellow/Advisory over fears of larger explosive eruptions. It has been almost 17 years since the last confirmed eruption from Kanaga, a VEI 2 event that produced mostly explosive material. However, eruptions in 1994 did also produce lava flows - a pretty typical combination in these Aleutian stratovolcanoes. Kanaga joins Cleveland as Aleutian volcanoes on elevated alert. Cleveland has seen its new summit dome continue to grow and has now reached ~60 meters in diameter. This continued growth increases that chance that an explosive eruption could occur at Cleveland if this dome blocks gases from escaping the volcanic conduit or the dome collapses as it grows larger - much like the explosive eruption in late December. The volcano remains on Orange/Watch alert status. Image: Kanaga in Alaska. Image Courtesy of AVO/USGS and the Alaska Museum at Rasmuson Center Ward W. Wells Collection.