July 31, 2023, 3:01 p.m., Pacific: It seems to be holding…good! If this keeps up, I’ll unpin the post.
Seismic activity near Trident Volcano remained elevated including numerous deep low-frequency earthquakes and tremor over the past day. These types of earthquakes often indicate the movement of magma or magmatic fluids beneath the ground. No activity was observed in partly cloudy satellite and web camera views.
The current period of seismic unrest began on August 24, 2022. Increases in seismic activity have been detected previously at Trident Volcano and other similar volcanoes and did not result in eruptions. We expect additional shallow seismicity and other signs of unrest, such as gas emissions, elevated surface temperatures, and ground movement, to precede any future eruption if one were to occur. ..
— AVO
July 26, 2023, 11:13 a.m., Pacific: Read the full information statement for a thorough discussion of the situation:
TRIDENT INFORMATION STATEMENT:
Full statement here: https://t.co/uDOXf8chTz
SUMMARY:
– unrest over last five months a result of magma intrusion beneath Trident Volcano
– elevated EQ rate is observed at neighboring volcs of the Katmai volcanic cluster pic.twitter.com/yoEDzxbRI6— Alaska AVO (@alaska_avo) July 25, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Original post:
Okay, this one is tricky and I’ve been trying since March to figure out a way to introduce you to “Trident Volcano.”
Earlier this year, Trident, which was already restless, had a seismic swarm and the Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert, but no eruption has come yet.
It’s impossible to get a typical Sunday Morning Volcano video on it. Trident and the surrounding region is — messy, what with the ongoing collision between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.
Messy, but spectacular.
Never mind trying to follow the names; just enjoy this snowy Alaskan scenery wherever you might be sitting on this sweltering June day!
Watch out for wind noise. Trident is on Wikipedia. More detailed links are given below.
Actually, 111 years ago this weekend that landscape was steaming hot. Novarupta — a couple of miles away — had just erupted.
Yeah, that bad boy is right down there: I think it’s somewhere around the area where the video narrator points at something dark, saying that’s lava from “this crater” next to him (he’s on the youngest peak in the cluster, first formed in 1953 and now called Southwest Trident) — per papers I’ve read, some of the Trident cluster’s lava did collapse into the Novarupta vent.
I think that valley-filling brown stuff down there where he points is “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.”
So, there are a couple reasons to take the Trident challenge now:
- Gorgeous snow- and glacier-covered Alaskan mountain scenery on a hot summer day here in the Lower 48.
- Anniversary of the 20th century’s biggest eruption, at Novarupta in early June 1912.
A third reason is that AVO still has Trident on YELLOW aviation code, seismicity continues, and one of these days you’re likely to see headlines that an explosive eruption of Trident Volcano has occurred, interrupting international air traffic in major ways (great-circle routes go right over the area).
Per the Global Volcanism Program, most of Trident’s recent eruptions have been VEI 3.
The problem is that you won’t be able to find a satisfying picture of “Trident Volcano.” According to a 28-page report (PDF download) by Hildreth et al.:
Trident Volcano lies between Katmai Pass and Mount Katmai along the volcanic front of the Alaska Peninsula reach of the Aleutian Arc. Trident consists of four contiguous stratovolcanoes and several peripheral lava domes…
In plain English, you’ll have to name pretty much every major landscape feature in that video to see which is Trident and which (like Novarupta) is a close neighbor.
This, basically. Novarupta includes that light-colored area marked “1912 ejecta ring” AND the dark brownish dome inside that rhyolite ring. (Figure 2, Hildreth et al.)
And if you love volcanoes, you’ll have a ball. The report — and this one (PDF download) on the Katmai volcanic cluster, which includes the Trident group — both have lots of photographs and diagrams; despite some heavy-duty volcanic hazards here, it’s fun to put names on such features and see how they probably formed.
But I’ll understand perfectly if you just kick back and enjoy the Alaskan scenery in that video.
Here is some more, from various perspectives:
Lagniappe:
Have you ever been so hungry, you’d chase off a bear?
Alaska has sea wolves, too.
Meanwhile, in Poland, the cat does not want to play:
Featured image: Taryn Lopez/AVO/UAF.
Flight To Wonder 