This Alaska volcano is gonna blow!...Or, is it?

Scientists are watching an Alaska volcano that they say has about a 50 percent chance of erupting.

Areas around Mount Spurr, a stratovolcano covered in ice and snow that lies near the highly-populated city of Anchorage, have seen a growing number of earthquakes.

Scientists have also observed snow melting on top of Spurr, according to the Alaska Beacon. It’s gotten to the point that they believe an eruption may come soon, or not at all.

“Indeed, that’s where we are, based on the anomalous data streams that have come in,” Matt Haney, the scientist in charge of the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage, told the publication. He noted that there was also a small chance of an explosion at the summit.

“We’re watching it very closely,” Haney said. “We’re saying that there’s unrest above background (levels), but it’s uncertain if this is actually building to an eruption.”

On Monday, the observatory said that numerous small and shallow volcanic quakes were detected below Spurr. But, everything else seemed to be fairly normal.

Swarms of earthquakes have shaken areas under and around snow-covered Mount Spurr for months. Now, scientists say the volcano has about at 50-50 shot of erupting (Alaska Volcano Observatory/Facebook)

“Clear views of the volcano showed no unusual activity over the past day. Airborne gas measurements from the Spurr summit and the Crater Peak vent collected on Friday February 7, show no significant changes in gas output from the volcano. Sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide gas are similar to background levels measured in previous years,” it said.

The observatory raised its alert status for Mount Spurr in October.

If an eruption were to occur, it would be preceded by additional signals that would allow advance warning, like ground deformation and vents or openings at the surface where volcanic gases and vapors are emitted.

Scientists are monitoring the volcano using seismic and satellite data. If it erupts, Mount Spurr could impact the city of Anchorage and Denali National Park (Alaska Volcano Observatory)

They are monitoring the volcano using seismic data, a web camera, satellite data, and infrasound monitoring, which uses microphones to detect low-frequency sounds called infrasound.

Similar seismic unrest occurred 20 years ago, before stopping without an eruption.

The last eruptions occurred in 1992 and 1953 from its Crater Peak flank vent just south of the summit. They were relatively small but explosive and sent ash over southeastern Alaska. Clouds traveled as far as the North Atlantic in 1992.

That year, hundreds of thousands of Anchorage residents were forced indoors or went out wearing masks after that eruption sent ash 11 miles high. The eruption halted air traffic, the Anchorage Daily News reported, and Anchorage reported nearly $2 million in damage.

Mount Spurr last erupted in 1953 and 1992. The volcano sent ash clouds over southeastern Alaska that traveled as far as the North Atlantic in 1992 (USGS)

No one died from either eruption.

“The earthquakes we’ve been seeing over the past month are more often being located beneath Crater Peak, which is the site of the historic eruptions in 1953 and 1992. So that’s something we’re looking at very closely to see if that trend continues,” Haney told KTUU.

The last known eruption from the summit was more than 5,000 years ago.

Mount Spurr is located on the Volcanic Ring of Fire and is one of more than 50 volcanoes in Alaska that have been active within the last 250 years.

With reporting from The Associated Press

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