Black Peak (Alaska) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Black Peak
Highest point
Elevation	3,385 ft (1,032 m)  NGVD 29
Listing	List of volcanoes in the United States
Geography
Location	Alaska Peninsula, Alaska, United States
Topo map	USGS Chignik C-3
Geology
Mountain type	Stratovolcano
Volcanic arc	Aleutian Arc
Last eruption	1900 BCE ± 150 years

Black Peak is a very old and worn-down volcano located on the Alaska Peninsula in Alaska, a state in the United States. It is also known as Black Volcano or Sopka Chornaia. This mountain is found within the Lake and Peninsula Borough.

What is Black Peak?

Black Peak is a type of volcano called a stratovolcano.

• A stratovolcano is a tall, cone-shaped volcano.
• It is built up over time by many layers of hardened lava, ash, and rock fragments.
• Black Peak also has a lava dome. This is a round mound that forms when very thick lava slowly oozes out of a volcano's vent.

Past Eruptions

Black Peak had a huge eruption less than 4,000 years ago, around 1900 BCE.

• This eruption was very powerful, rated as a VEI-6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
• The VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) is a scale that measures how big and explosive a volcanic eruption is. A VEI-6 eruption is considered very large and destructive.
• This massive eruption caused the volcano's top to collapse, forming a large bowl-shaped crater called a caldera.
• The eruption also sent out fast-moving flows of hot ash and rock. These flows, called ash flow tuffs and block and ash flow deposits, rushed down the Ash Creek and Bluff Creek valleys.
• These hot flows were so thick that they filled parts of the valleys up to 100 meters (about 330 feet) deep!