Veniaminof mount

The mount Veniaminof is one of the Stratovolcan S credits of the peninsula of the Alaska, with the the United States.

Geographical location

Located at 780 km in the south-west of Anchorage, the Veniaminof Mount is one of the volcanos highest of the peninsula of Alaska.

Morphology of the volcano

Veniaminof is a stratovolcano truncated by broad a Caldera of 8 km out of 11, formed 3700 years ago. This will caldera, because of altitude and of the geographical position of this volcano, was filled up during the centuries by snows and Glacier S which deeply modified its morphology. In the west, will caldera it was broken by the glacial erosion; in the south, a permanent cover of ice and snow fills it. In north, the uneven one between the bottom and the edge of will caldéra exceeds 500 Mr.

All the posterior and external eruptions with this will caldera occurred along a Rift Zone, zone of 55 kilometers long and directed weakness north-western/south-eastern, coast of the Bering Sea in direction of the Pacifique.

Type of magma

The outcrops exposed by the glacial erosion show that this volcano had a long activity of the tholéiites type of arc, producing basalts and andesitic basalts for approximately 250.000 years until approximately 100.000 years ago.

Thereafter, the magma became more siliceous, and Veniaminof started to produce andesites and dacites.

Eruptive activity

The recent activity of Veniaminof mainly appeared inside will caldera and led to the construction of 2 cones. Most Western of both, culminating to 2156 m (of which 330 m above the glacial cover which imprisons it) was probably the seat of all the historical eruptions, while its neighbor is very worn by the glacial erosion.

This volcano produced of the clouds of andesitic ashes and dacitic, which one can find the traces up to 55 km of the edge of will caldéra, to in the Bering Sea and on the peaceful coast. Since historical times, the volcano produced a score of eruptive periods between 1830 and 2006.

The currently most dreaded main risk on behalf of this volcano is a Jökulhlaup, i.e. an abrupt glacial rout caused by the heat of the magmatism, able to cause enormous floods.

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