Sunday, March 2, 2008

113 - Veniaminof Volcano, Alaska

Midway up the Alaskan Peninsula, W of Chignik.



Wikipedia:
Mount Veniaminof is an active stratovolcano located on the Alaska Peninsula. The Alaska Volcano Observatory currently rates Veniaminof as Aviation Color Code Green and Volcano Alert Level Normal. The mountain was named after Ioann (Ivan Popov) Veniaminov (1797-1879), a Russian Orthodox missionary priest whose writings on the Aleut language and ethnology are still standard references.
The volcano was the site of a colossal (VEI 6) eruption around 1750 BC. This eruption left a large caldera. In modern times the volcano has had numerous small eruptions (over ten of them since 1930); these are located at a cinder cone in the middle of the caldera.
Veniaminof has one of the highest elevations of Alaskan volcanoes. Partly for this reason, it is covered by a glacier that fills most of the caldera. Because of the glacier and the caldera walls, there is the possibility for a major flood from a glacier run at some point in the future.


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