A swarm of hundreds of small earthquakes have been recorded near an Alaskan volcano that has been dormant for at least 800 years.
The quakes have taken place under Mount Edgecumbe, near Sitka, but it may not be a sign of volcanic activity, according to Dave Schneider, a research geophysicist with the US Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.
The 3,200-feet-tall volcano sits on Kruzof Island, 15 miles west of Sitka, and is part of a large underwater volcanic field.
“These aren’t necessarily related to volcanic activity, they could be a tectonic in nature or a combination of tectonics and the volcano,” said Mr Schneider.
“We really can’t tell the difference at this point.”
And he said that as things stand there is no major cause for concern.
“Volcanoes do have swarms of earthquakes that do not lead to eruption,” he said.
Data shows that a small number of earthquakes began in the area in 2020, with about 40 in the past two years up until this recent run, most of which were too small to register on multiple seismic stations, according to the Associated Press.
Alaska has around 90 volcanoes that have been active in the last 10,000 years, mostly in remote areas and not near towns the size of Sitka, which has 8,500 residents.
According to the Associated Press there is no written record of the volcano ever having erupted, but there is Tlingit oral history about small eruptions about 800 years ago.
There is geological evidence of an eruption around 4,500 years ago, as well as evidence of a large eruption up to 14,500 years ago.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
