AN UPDATED COUNT OF HISTORIC ERUPTIONS AND VOLCANOES IN ALASKA

As part of the Alaska Volcano Observatory Geologic Database of Information on Volcanoes in Alaska (GeoDIVA), we recently completed a compilation of information about historic eruptions in Alaska. This compilation contains more information on a greater number of eruptions in Alaska than ever previously available. Information on each event, including text of historical accounts, individual eruption bibliographies, and photographs is available online at: http://www.avo.alaska.edu. The database currently holds information from the year 1700 to the present on 423 possible or definite eruptions, from 43 volcanic centers. 182 of these events are considered "questionable eruptions," due to lack of information about the exact nature of activity. The remaining 241 volcanic eruptions from 30 centers are more certain. Twenty volcanic centers have had only fumarolic activity or questionable eruptive events. If we consider an "active" volcano to have had either a magmatic eruption or significant fumarolic activity, then this dataset contains 50 historically active volcanoes. These numbers are much higher than the previously used numbers of >265 eruptions from 41 volcanoes, and are derived from the most complete dataset currently available.