Supervolcano may be hiding in Alaska's Aleutian Islands; Read details

A supervolcano might be lurking behind the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, according to a report of Alaska Public Media. A new study was conducted about the existence of this supervolcano. The existence of the wide crater proved the fact of the explosion of the supervolcano in Alaska. This has been found to connect four existing volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands. The crater discovered is very big. If the volcano erupted in the last few thousand years on Earth, it will have damaged civilizations all over the Earth.

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The six volcanoes are located near the central part of the island and it looks like an ordinary cluster of volcanoes. But when the accumulated data are taken together, it shows the existence of a caldera about twenty kilometers across. The volcanoes are neatly arranged in a ring shape. The seafloor mapping mostly from the 1950s, points out the presence of arc-shaped ridges and a 130-meter depression in the center of this ring shape made by the volcanoes. Hence, this very easily proves that the volcanoes are linked via a big caldera.

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The gravity data from the various other satellites point out the look of the other calderas. The presence of volcanic gases like sulfur dioxide, micro-earthquake patterns all points out the presence of a caldera.

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With the help of seafloor topography mapping, one can know about the existence of the supervolcano in the Aleutian Islands. The bathymetry map compiled by NOAA shows gray areas that point out the existing volcanoes in the area. The orange areas on the map show the shallow volcanic zones.

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The microearthquakes did not surprise the geologists. According to Alaska Public Media, Mount Cleveland is among the active volcanoes on this island. The microearthquakes extended east and north as one would expect when there is a volcano on the surface. This also makes sense due to the existence of the caldera.

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The site of the Aleutians is accessible for the geologists for a very short time each year. Hence, there is a great rush for collecting data. The geologists’ team wants to confirm the existence of the caldera. They also want to look out for similar ash in ice cores in different parts of the world. This will help them to predict when the supervolcano in this island erupted. This will also help one to understand why Mount Cleveland is so active and also analyze the hazards posed by the active volcanoes.