• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Search Gallery

Keywords:
Search this gallery
Search entire archive

(32 photos)

Aerial photography of volcanoes by Paul Andrew Lawrence.
Alaska contains over 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields which have been active within the last two million years.
Of these volcanoes, about 90 have been active within the last 10,000 years (and might be expected to erupt again), and more than 50 have been active within historical time (since about 1760, for Alaska). The volcanoes in Alaska make up well over three-quarters of U.S. volcanoes that have erupted in the last two...
more »

Aerial photography of volcanoes by Paul Andrew Lawrence.
Alaska contains over 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields which have been active within the last two million years.
Of these volcanoes, about 90 have been active within the last 10,000 years (and might be expected to erupt again), and more than 50 have been active within historical time (since about 1760, for Alaska). The volcanoes in Alaska make up well over three-quarters of U.S. volcanoes that have erupted in the last two hundred years. Since 1760, 27 Alaskan volcanoes have had more than 230 confirmed eruptions. This averages to nearly one eruption per year. If we add in those volcanoes and eruptions that are suspected but unconfirmed (and often, unconfirmable), then we have 54 volcanoes with about 424 possible eruptions, yielding an average of 1.7 eruptions per year.
However, these figures do not consider the large discrepancy in observation and reporting of Alaskan eruptions. For the past 40 years - a period in which we have fairly good records -- Alaska has averaged more than two eruptions per year.
« less