Veniaminof is in Alaska, situated about 56°10' N og 159°22.48'
W, that is 775 km SW of
Anchorage, and it raises 2,507m asl. Veniaminof is a large stratovolcano
in which a large caldera
was formed during an eruption about 3.700 years ago. The caldera is
about 10 km wide, filled with snow and ice. All previous eruptions have
come from vents in the
snow and ice. When lava comes out, it has often been flowing down upon
the snow or ice, and
then melted it during its way further out in the caldera, and a lavalake
developes.
Historic eruptions from the volcano has made vapour and ashcolumns as
high as 6.000 m above
the summit, and ash has covered areas within 40 km radius.
Vapour
from a vent on Veniaminof during the last part of the eruption in
av utbruddet 1983-1984. Not so hot lavastreams fill up an area of 2,3
x 1,0 km which
has been melting the underlayin ice- and snowcover..
Photo: B. Yount, U.S. Geological
Survey, January 23, 1984.
Only few people live near the volcano, so chances for loss of human
lives are small.
Still they oucht to be frightened if a so called jökulhlaup (See
Grimsvötn) comes. A
jökulhlaup is the result when an eruption comes under a thick layer
of ice or snow. The eruption
will then melt the lower part of the icecover. If this last long, the
icecover above will flow upon its
own melted water. When such a situation occurs, melted water will slip
away and a tremendous
flow of water will flow down the slopes of the volcano, destroying everything
on its way.
This often happens on Oceland, and such a possibility might also come
to Veniaminof.
Tuesday, January 11th, 2005
Ash emissions from the intracaldera cone of Mount Veniaminof, some
reaching nearly
13,000 ft (3692 m) above sea level, have occurred more or less continuously
over the
last 48 hours. Seismicity remains at elevated levels and satellite images
show a persistent
thermal anomaly in the vicinity of the cone. Thus the color code for
Mount Veniaminof has
been upgraded to ORANGE.
Very weak volcanic tremor was observed starting on January
1, 2005. Since then, the magnitude
of the volcanic tremor has increased significantly and there have been
frequent (> 1 per minute)
small volcanic earthquakes. As of this writing, seismic activity is
nearly continuous; the frequency
of seismic events exceeds that recorded during steam emissions and ash
emissions from April to
October, 2004, however the overall amplitude remains about the same.
We expect that steam
and ash emissions may continue and could pose a hazard to people and
low- to medium-flying
aircraft in the vicinity of the active cone.
Thursday, January 6th, 2005
Weak seismic tremors were observed starting Jan. 1
and increased slightly over the next
few days. Ash emissions were observed in images of Veniaminof taken
around 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday. At around 10 a.m. Tuesday a pilot flying at 14,000 feet noted
small ash
emissions from Veniaminof.
Later in the day, 19 separate ash bursts were observed
from Veniaminof, none of which
escalated above 500 meters from the summit. The most recent reports
from Perryville
included constant ash emissions today at around 10 a.m.
From Kodiak
Daily Mirror
Saturday, July 31st, 2004
Episodes of volcanic tremor continue intermittently at Mount Veniaminof
Volcano. No
visual observations of ash emissions have been made since July 22, (picture
below)
although the observed seismicity is similar to that observed coincident
with ash
emissions in the past few months. Most such emissions do not reach 10,000
ft. above
sea level, though a few have been reported to reach as high as 12,000
ft.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2004

Active
web-camera: See our web-cam site here
Mount Veniaminof has been restless over the past week, spitting up ash
and steam, and lightly shaking the ground, according to the Alaska Volcano
Observatory.
"We expect that steam and ash emissions similar to those observed
this week may continue intermittently and could pose a hazard to people
and low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the active cone," the
observatory reported in its Friday update.
Ash and steam spotted during clear weather last Wednesday
and Thursday rose to 8,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level. The clouds
then drifted 10 miles on strong winds, while seismic tremors continued
above background levels.
April 27th, 2004
During 10-17 April, Veniaminof showed heightened seismicity with
several episodes of
volcanic tremor and earthquakes. Seismicity decreased significantly
prior to the emission
of a gas plume with some ash throughout 18 April. The most vigorous
phase occurred
at about 1730 on 18 April when the plume rose to ~0.5 km above the crater.
At about 1130 on 19 April another period of heightened seismic activity
began.
Due to the increased activity, Veniaminof was upgraded to Concern
Color Code Yellow.

Strombolian
eruption with hot lava fragments from the top of Veniaminof.
Photo: B. Yount, U.S. Geological Survey, July 13,
1983.
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