Iliamna volcano (Cook Inlet, SW Alaska): ice-rock avalanche followed earthquakes

Vertical-component seismic waveforms and spectrograms from AVO station ILSW for the May 2016, June 2019, and June 2023 avalanches on Iliamna volcano (image: AVO)

An elevated seismic activity occurred beneath the volcano yesterday.

Earthquakes began at about noon at roughly regular 1-minute intervals in the beginning, but later on have been gradually declining.

The activity culminated in an ice-rock avalanche slightly before 05:14 PM in the evening. Even the local observatory lacks a visual confirmation, seismic recordings match historic observations of avalanches associated with Red Glacier on the volcano’s eastern flank.
The seismic activity may relate to the shallow hydrothermal system or elevated magma flux.

The alert level for the volcano was raised to Yellow first, but the AVO made a decision to change the status back to Green.

Source: Alaska Volcano Observatory volcano activity update 6 June 2023