Description

From Wood and Kienle (1990) ^[1] : "Buldir Island is the westernmost volcanic center of the present Pleistocene to Recent Aleutian volcanic front. The next westward subaerial volcanism is in Kamchatka. Buldir is a small (~2 cubic km), isolated, and mountainous island consisting of two volcanoes, the older of which is Buldir volcano and the younger East Cape volcano. Although broadly of similar age, a significant lapse of time between their formation allowed considerable marine and subaerial erosion, the products of which fill the lowlands. Buldir volcano, which once had a parasitic cone, consists of a few thin (3-m), olivine-bearing, high alumina basalt flows and much volcaniclastic debris. East Cape volcano has two vents: the principal vent forms an eruptive cone cored by a late stage plug, whereas the secondary vent is a large flank dome of hornblende andesite.
"Buldir Island is unusual in its restricted flora relative to neighboring islands, suggesting that it is comparatively young and not a fragment of a much older, larger subaerial island. The once nearly extinct Aleutian goose (a lesser Canada goose) was rekindled from relict nestings on Buldir."