Images from the NOAA 7 polar orbiting satellite at 1816 on 8 July showed an elongate plume extending approximately 100 km S from Okmok. Analysis of infrared data yielded a plume temperature of -25°C, corresponding to an altitude of 6.3 km. The plume was not visible on imagery returned 12 hours earlier and later. There were no other reports of activity at Okmok during this period. Umnak Island is not densely populated, but aircraft frequently fly near the volcano.

Geological Summary. The basaltic Okmok shield volcano forms the NE end of Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands. The summit of the low, 35-km-wide volcano is cut by two overlapping 10-km-wide calderas formed during eruptions about 12,000 and 2,050 years ago when dacitic pyroclastic flows reached the coast. More than 60 tephra layers from Okmok have been found overlying the 12,000-year-old caldera-forming tephra layer. Numerous cones and lava domes are present on the flanks down to the coast, including the SE-flank Mount Tulik, which is almost 200 m higher than the caldera rim. Some of the post-caldera cones show evidence of wave-cut lake terraces; more recent cones were formed after the caldera lake, once 150 m deep, disappeared. Eruptions have been reported since 1805 from cinder cones within the caldera, where there are also hot springs and fumaroles.

Information Contacts: M. Matson, NOAA/NESDIS; T. Miller and M. E. Yount, USGS, Anchorage.