NASA Satellite Captures Alaska's Iliamna Volcano From Space Amid Seismic Spike

A NASA-operated satellite recently captured an image of Iliamna Volcano, a glacier-covered volcano located in southwest Alaska, from space. The volcano, standing at an impressive 10,016 feet above sea level, grabbed attention after a recent burst of seismic activity that was recorded on June 15, 2025.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8 satellite, operated by NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), took the image on June 10.

Iliamna is a stratovolcano, characterised by its steep, conical shape and periodic explosive eruptions. The volcano is currently considered dormant as the most recent reported eruption occurred in 1876, but NASA said that the mountain still rumbles once every couple of years.

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"Its murmurs tend not to be signs of volcanic unrest but rather the signature of avalanches large enough to register on nearby seismic and infrasound instruments," NASA said in a post whose title was "Iliamna Volcano Ready to Rumble".

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) said that seismic activity picked up at about 4:30 am (local time) on June 15. It ramped up to a "nearly continuous" rate.

As per the observatory, the seismic activity "slowed to a cadence of about one seismic event per minute and then returned to background levels around 2:30 pm (local time).

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The observatory lacked sufficient data to pinpoint the size and location of a potential slide that day. However, the signals detected were comparable to those preceding large avalanches on the volcano in the past, which typically involve slipping between rock and ice.

These signals suggest possible instability, but further information is needed to confirm the nature of the event. The "outcome of the current activity remains uncertain," the AVO said.