What country do the Aleutian Islands belong to?
Nearly all of them are part of the U.S. state of Alaska. The major island groups from east to west are the Fox Islands, the Islands of the Four Mountains, and the Andreanof, Rat, and Near islands. The Komandor (Commander) Islands near the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia are also geographically part of the Aleutians.
What boundary is the Aleutian Islands?
convergent plate boundary
The Aleutian Trench (or Aleutian Trough) is an oceanic trench along a convergent plate boundary which runs along the southern coastline of Alaska and the Aleutian islands.
How did the Aleutian Islands formed?
Subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate creating the Aleutian trench and volcanic island arc (Credit: Alaska Volcano Observatory). Instead, this sticky lava clogs the volcano’s throat and causes explosive eruptions when magma again tries to move to the surface.
Are the Aleutian Islands a mid ocean ridge?
The Aleutian island arc crust in Alaska is ~25 km thick, and has a volume of ~2300 km3 per kilometer of the arc. In the upper crust, there is ~6 km of basaltic andesite, while the middle crust is composed of 5 km-thick mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), and 19 km- thick tholeiitic residue in the lower crust.
How many inches a year does North America move westward?
The North American plate is moving to the west-southwest at about 2.3 cm (~1 inch) per year driven by the spreading center that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
Where are the Aleutian Islands located in Alaska?
The Aleutian region includes the Alaska Peninsula, which forms the south shoreline of Bristol Bay, and the 1,100-mile- (1,770-km-) long Aleutian island chain that separates the North Pacific from the Bering Sea.
How tall are the volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands?
The Aleutian Island chain extends from the Alaska Peninsula almost 1,500 km to the east between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. It is composed of a series of sedimentary islands capped by steep volcanoes. Elevations range from sea level to over 1,900m, with the higher volcanoes glaciated.
How are the Aleutian Islands related to the Bering Sea?
They form a barrier between the Bering Sea to the north and the Gulf of Alaska and North Pacific Ocean to the south, affecting currents of both water and air. The islands channel the Alaskan Stream, a warm current that circles the Gulf of Alaska and moves west toward Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
Where is the Aleutian Range in North America?
The range extends southwestward for about 600 miles (1,000 km) from the west end of the Alaska Range to the head of Cook Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, Alaska, U.S.