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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Mount Veniaminof

Mount Veniaminof (Russian: Вулкан Вениаминова) is an active stratovolcano on the Alaska Peninsula. The mountain was named after Ioann (Ivan Popov) Veniaminov (1797–1879), a Russian Orthodox missionary priest (and later a prominent bishop in Russia) whose writings on the Aleut language and ethnology are still standard references. He is a saint of the Orthodox Church, known as Saint Innocent for the monastic name he used in later life.

The volcano was the site of a colossal (VEI 6) eruption around 1750 BCE. This eruption left a large caldera. In modern times the volcano has had numerous small eruptions (over ten of them since 1930), all at a cinder cone in the middle of the caldera.

Veniaminof is one of the highest 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 of a major flood from a future glacier run.

The volcano recently began erupting on September 3, 2018, as magma broke through the summit and flowed down its slopes as a lava flow. Despite starting off as an effusive eruption, by November 20, the eruption became more intense and ash was reaching 20,000 feet, prompting the AVO to give a warning for aviation because of the ash posing a threat to aviation. Even an ashfall warning was issued for the nearby town of Perryville.

In 1967, Mount Veniaminof was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Map showing volcanoes of Alaska Peninsula.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Veniaminof". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  2. ^ "Alaskan ultra-prominent peaks". peaklist.org. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  3. ^ "National Natural Landmarks - National Natural Landmarks (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-20.