Three Alaska Peninsula volcanoes are restless

A volcanic plume bellows from Bogoslof on June 5, 2017. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Research Vessel Tiglax)
A volcanic plume bellows from Bogoslof on June 5, 2017. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Research Vessel Tiglax)

Over the last week there has been quite a bit of volcanic activity along the Alaska Peninsula.

The Bogoslof, Cleveland and Pavlof volcanoes all are showing signs of unrest.

Most recently, the Bogoslof volcano erupted briefly about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“Bogoslof has been continuing its eruptive activity that started in December 2016 with a series of small activities,” said Jessica Larsen, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. “Now we have new evidence that there’s a lava dome growing at the Bogoslof Island.”

A lava dome is a mound of lava that has been extruded from the volcano, a characteristic of previous Bogoslof explosive periods.

“In the past, it’s formed toward the end of the eruptions. We don’t know exactly if this is happening now or if the Bogoslof volcano is going to stick with the lava dome and quiet down,” Larsen said. “It could just keep continuing to have its punctuated explosions as well.”

The observatory’s alert level for Bogoslof remains at “watch,” and the aviation alert is at its second highest level.

The Cleveland volcano also is at the “watch” alert level.

“Cleveland has been in sort of a prolonged periodic phase of eruptive activity that includes extrusion of lava in a summit crater and then periodic explosions that tend to destroy the lava and put up ash cloud,” Larsen said.

Pavlof volcano, located on the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula, was raised from normal alert level to “advisory” Wednesday.

The observatory notes that there has been “an increase in low-frequency earthquake activity at Pavlof,” and such increases sometimes precede eruptions.

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