Alaskan Eruption Forces Evacuations

Alaska Airlines crew member Kelly Reeves took this photo as his flight passed above Okmok Volcano on July 13, the day following its first violent eruption.

A handful of cattle ranchers who live on Alaska’s Umnak Island were quickly evacuated as the island’s Okmok volcano erupted with one of the mountain's most powerful explosions in recorded history.

About 50 residents of a small native Aleut village appeared to be out of danger on the other side of the island from Okmok’s crater.

A plume of ash and sulfur dioxide soared 50,000 feet (15 kilometres) above the Aleutian Islands, with some of the debris falling on nearby Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO).

Okmok is a highly active volcano, producing eruptions about every 10 to 20 years since 1805.

The current activity is more intense than the last three major eruptive events in 1945, 1958 and 1997.

The observatory said the latest explosion was unusually water-rich, due to the mixing of rising magma and shallow groundwater.

Lava is predicted to eventually spill from Okmok’s crater as activity continues for several weeks, or longer.

Photo: Kelly Reeves - Alaska Airlines
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