SHISHALDIN VOLCANO

(Aleutian Islands, Alaska)

From Miller and others (1998): "Shishaldin Volcano, located near the center of Unimak Island, is a
spectacular symmetrical cone about 16 km in diameter at the base. The mountain, which rises to a summit
2857 m above sea level, is the highest peak in the Aleutian Islands and has a small summit crater from
which a steady cloud of steam is emitted. The upper 2000 m is almost entirely covered by perennial snow
and ice. It is flanked to the northwest by 24 monogenetic parasitic cones. The Shishaldin cone is less than
10,000 year old and is constructed on a glacially eroded remnant of an ancestral soma and shield, which
in turn are underlain by volcaniclastic rocks of probable late Tertiary age . Fournelle (1988) suggests that
the basement may consist, at least in part, of plutonic rocks."

Shishaldin is located near the center of Unimak Island in Alaska, with the current eruption phase
beginning in July 2019 and characterized by ash plumes, lava flows, lava fountaining, pyroclastic flows,
and lahars. More recently, in late 2019 and into January 2020, activity consisted of multiple lava flows,
pyroclastic flows, lahars, and ashfall events. This report summarizes activity from February through May
2020, including gas-and-steam emissions, brief thermal activity in mid-March, and a possible new cone
within the summit crater. The primary source of information comes from the Alaska Volcano Observatory
(AVO) reports and various satellite data.