Live cameras in Aleutian Islands, United States

The Aleutian Islands curve west from the Alaska Peninsula for roughly 1,200 miles, a chain of 14 main volcanic islands and dozens of smaller ones that separate the Bering Sea from the North Pacific. The island groups run from the Fox Islands in the east through the Islands of Four Mountains, the Andreanof, Rat and Near Islands. Few people live here: the 2020 census counted about 7,150 residents in the whole chain, more than half of them in Unalaska, home of the fishing port of Dutch Harbor. Treeless green slopes, steaming peaks and long stretches of open water give the islands their character.

The cameras on this page come from two federal programs. The USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) keeps webcams on many Aleutian volcanoes, including Akutan, Makushin, Okmok, Shishaldin, Great Sitkin, Kanaga and Semisopochnoi. Scientists use them to spot ash clouds, steam plumes and glow at night, alongside seismic and satellite data. Each U.S. volcano carries a ground-based Volcano Alert Level (Normal, Advisory, Watch, Warning) and an Aviation Color Code (Green, Yellow, Orange, Red), which matters here because the North Pacific air routes pass overhead. As of early October 2026, AVO listed Great Sitkin at Watch/Orange with slow lava extrusion in its summit crater, and Shishaldin at Advisory/Yellow. The other views are NOAA NDBC BuoyCAMs on offshore weather buoys, which send a six-frame, 360-degree strip of sea and sky about once an hour in daylight.

When to look

The chain straddles two time zones. Most of it, including Unalaska, keeps Alaska Time (UTC-9, UTC-8 in summer); the islands west of 169°30'W use Hawaii-Aleutian Time (UTC-10, UTC-9 in summer). Fog and wind are the rule rather than the exception, and a volcano camera may show nothing but gray for days, so check back often. Clear spells tend to come with cold, dry northerly air. Long summer daylight gives the buoy cameras many more frames, while winter brings short days and rough seas.

Nearby on our map, Katmai National Park on the Alaska Peninsula has more AVO cameras plus the Brooks Falls bear cam. History fans may also look up Attu and Kiska, the two islands occupied by Japan in 1942.

Sources: Aleutian Islands - Wikipedia · Alaska Volcano Observatory webcams · USGS Volcano Updates · NOAA NDBC BuoyCAMs.