Global Volcanism Program

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Buzzard Creek.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Buzzard Creek.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Buzzard Creek.

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

315001

1050 BCE

830 m / 2,723 ft

64.0616°N
148.4327°W

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Minor (Basaltic)

Volcano Types
Tuff ring(s)

Rock Types

Major
Basalt / Picro-Basalt

Tectonic Setting

Subduction zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

0
0
12
79,489

Geological Summary

Two Holocene tuff rings form craters 300 and 66 m wide near the headwaters of Buzzard Creek at the northern foot of the central Alaska Range NE of the town of Healy along the Parks Highway. Both contain small lakes, and the smaller ring is about 200 m SE of the larger one. The total volume of ejecta, most of which is accessory material, probably does not exceed 0.001 km³. The ejecta overlies young glacial terraces that correlate with a glacial stage that ended about 10,000 years ago, and radiocarbon dates give an age for the eruption that formed the tuff rings of about 3,000 years. This minor volcanic feature lies along trend with the Aleutian arc, but is located 320 km NE of its nearest Holocene neighbor (Hayes volcano), and directly over the northernmost corner of the subducting Pacific Plate.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Wood C A, Kienle J (eds), 1990. Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ Press, 354 p.

Eruptive History

There is data available for 1 confirmed Holocene eruptive periods.

1050 BCE (?) Confirmed Eruption (Explosive / Effusive) VEI: 2

Episode 1 | Eruption (Explosive / Effusive)

1050 BCE (?) - Unknown

Evidence from Isotopic: 14C (uncalibrated)

List of 4 Events for Episode 1

Start Date	End Date	Event Type
- - - -	- - - -	Explosion
- - - -	- - - -	Lapilli
- - - -	- - - -	Bombs
1050 BCE (?)	- - - -	VEI (Explosivity Index)

The Global Volcanism Program has no synonyms or subfeatures listed for Buzzard Creek.

Photo Gallery

A small lake partially fills a 300-m-wide tuff ring, the larger of two craters of Buzzard Creek. Both craters formed during phreatomagmatic eruptions about 3,000 years ago, and are 320 km NE of their nearest neighbor in the Aleutian arc, Hayes volcano.

Photo by Chris Nye (Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska Volcano Observatory).

Moderate explosive eruptions radiocarbon dated to about 3,000 years ago formed two tuff rings in the central Alaska Range. A 300-m-wide ejecta blanket can be traced 1.6 km from the larger vent, seen in this photo. Ejecta on the crater rim consists of about 80% country rock fragments, with only 20% juvenile basaltic fragments. A geologist in a red jacket (right) and a helicopter (beyond the trees on the left side of the lake) on the crater rim, provide scale.

Photo by Chris Nye (Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska Volcano Observatory).

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Buzzard Creek in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Alaska Volcano Observatory (Link to Buzzard Creek)

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) is a joint program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAFGI), and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS). AVO was formed in 1988, and uses federal, state, and university resources to monitor and study Alaska's hazardous volcanoes, to predict and record eruptive activity, and to mitigate volcanic hazards to life and property.

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

MIROVA

Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from volcanic activity.

MODVOLC Thermal Alerts

Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

Volcanic Hazard Maps

The IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Hazards and Risk has a Volcanic Hazard Maps database designed to serve as a resource for hazard mappers (or other interested parties) to explore how common issues in hazard map development have been addressed at different volcanoes, in different countries, for different hazards, and for different intended audiences. In addition to the comprehensive, searchable Volcanic Hazard Maps Database, this website contains information about diversity of volcanic hazard maps, illustrated using examples from the database. This site is for educational purposes related to volcanic hazard maps. Hazard maps found on this website should not be used for emergency purposes. For the most recent, official hazard map for a particular volcano, please seek out the proper institutional authorities on the matter.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Buzzard Creek. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Buzzard Creek. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

DECADE Data

The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Mapping Gas Emissions (MaGa) Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO₂ to the atmosphere, but installing CO₂ monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.

Large Eruptions of Buzzard Creek

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).