ISLAMABAD/ANCHORAGE: A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the previous few weeks has intensified at a remote Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, indicating the impending eruption.
Alaska volcano alert level
The Alaska Volcano Observatory increased the alert level to advisory status for Tanaga Volcano late on Tuesday after the quakes became very vigorous.
“We started seeing a whole lot of quakes occurring, one after the other, several per minute,” said John Power, a research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey stationed in Anchorage at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
He said there have been hundreds of small earthquakes, none larger than magnitude 2.75, but they are concentrated beneath the volcano’s summit.John said that “That indicates that we’re seeing significant unrest at the volcano,”
“Whether or not this would lead to an eruption is something we cannot say at this point in time,” he said. “But we are concerned about it and we have gone and elevated the altering level.”
While the rise causes concern, he often said earthquake activity would drop off with no eruption. He said that “It’s anybody’s guess as to where this particular round of earthquake activity may end up,”
The volcano is on an uninhabited island in the western Aleutians, about 1,250 miles southwest of Anchorage. There are no communities and structures there, but Adak, a city of about 170 residents on another island, is about 65 miles away and could see ashfall.
