Fumaroles On Gareloi Island
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
High on Gareloi Island in the Aleutians, this is a field of fumaroles, steam vents, within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. No temperature is recorded, only that it is hot. Public access is restricted. Dutch Harbor, the nearest town on file, is nearly four hundred miles away. There is no soaking here.
Over three thousand feet up on an island with no road; the closest road on record is thirty-one miles off. Land is Fish and Wildlife Service refuge. Climate is cold and damp, cold enough that the average never clears freezing, with close to six feet of snow.
Restricted means permission from the refuge first. Nothing on file about season or camping. Ground near steam vents can be hot enough to burn; no reading here says otherwise. No fee is recorded, and nothing on file explains how anyone reaches the island.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the north.
- Highest ground nearby
- 608 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
A slice through the ground from north to south, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.