Given their tendency to erupt, spewing out tons of molten lava and ash, it seems all the volcanoes in the in the world should have been discovered, catalogued, and researched by now. But in the past three years, U.S. Geological Survey geologists have discovered twelve new volcanoes in the southeastern region of Alaska, similar to the one pictured below.
The intrigue began in 2009, says NBCNews.com when scientists found that a discovered volcano which erupted around the same time as Mt. Edgecumbe (the panhandle’s biggest volcano), had a completely different chemical signature from its neighbor. With increased expeditions to the volcano came even more volcanic discoveries, all with a chemical pattern that turned out to be identical to that of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, a field of volcanoes in Canada already known to be 1,250 miles long and 375 miles wide. Those dimensions may now have to be revised.
The remote, uninhabited Alaskan terrain of islands, fjords, forests, and varying ocean levels helped hide the relatively small cones. Yet despite their size, these unique sources of lava could be invaluable to scientists.
According to LiveScience.com, the project leader, Susan Karl of Anchorage, believes it's “giving us this serendipitous window on the history of climate in Southeast Alaska for the last 1 million years.” Patterns in the lava indicate eruptions in glacial areas, which could be clues to ice levels during climactic changes. Furthermore, not only can lava preserve climate information as it hardens, there may be a link between volcanic and glacial activity.
Other treasured discoveries include possible unmapped lava vents; an underwater volcano in Behm Canal; a basalt flow east of Ketchikan; and a maar, or underwater magma crater, near Cape Addington.